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Blizzard Announces Diablo 3
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Jun 28, 2008 08:09 AM
from the mouse-buttons-beware dept.
from the mouse-buttons-beware dept.
stpk4 writes "After a week-long tease by Blizzard, Diablo 3 has just been announced in Paris.
The splash screen has been updated at their homepage
and The Escapist has the first write-up." While there aren't many details available yet, it is known that Deckard Cain returns to help our heroes yet again.
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Diablo 3 Developer Explains Health and Potion Changes 177 comments
One of the new features in the upcoming Diablo 3 release is a change from the traditional potion-guzzling, inventory-clogging system of previous games to a new scheme in which monsters drop health orbs on the ground that refill your health when you touch them. Lead Designer Jay Wilson says the change makes for more varied gameplay and a more consistent way to scale difficulty. He told the Multiplayer blog:
"When the player has similar downsides, it means we can make a lot more interesting monsters. We don't have to kill you to challenge you. We can make a monster that affects your mobility, we can make a monster that has different kinds of attacks that are dangerous to you and that you actually have to avoid. And so it makes the combat a lot more interesting."
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Not only splash screen (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not only splash screen (Score:5, Funny)
All I see is fifty bazillion unnecessary Flash widgets, with a smidgen of text way at the bottom. They even apparently require Flash just to show a fancy capital "T".
Maybe that's the point. In Diablo III, you, the hapless adventurer, are given the Nerd's Gaming Rig of Total Righteousness (Unique Item), and must venture through the Gates of Hell to destroy Diablo's armies of pointless Flash widgets.
In the expansion, you essentially do the same thing, except now they're all Silverlight widgets, and you face off against a chair-throwing Steve Ballmer at the end.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
At least you got to see the bazillion unnecessary Flash widgets. The page appears to be slashdotted.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Other forms of payment (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Other forms of payment (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps Blizzard and I can simplify our relationship and I can just hand them my soul. They seem to have a pretty good handle on it as it is.
I'd go for that when there will be a Linux port of the game. Here's the address to write to and to let them know that there is demand:
http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml [blizzard.com]
Just think, if half of all /.ers wrote to them expressing interest in a Linux port, how much pressure that would be to deliver. Even a port compiled against Wine 1.0 would be great. Write to them and let them know that.
Parent
Re:Other forms of payment (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Other forms of payment (Score:5, Insightful)
I run WoW under wine on ubuntu. Works perfectly, and even plays nice with the compiz fusion desktop effects. I can run WoW on one desktop, and then spin the cube to another to answer IMs or whatever.
But it might not work in the next release. If we don't write to the game developers and let them know that we want to use their products on linux - even if there currently is a workaround such as wine - then we will never have games written for the OS. And not having games is what keeps many people on Windows. A vicious cycle, and we need to break it.
Parent
Re:Other forms of payment (Score:5, Insightful)
While not the perfect solution, Wine does get the job done, and can allow people to play games that they wouldn't otherwise be able to.
Not if the developers have been working with the aim of not breaking under Wine. I think the OP was saying to distribute a known good version of Wine with the game, and run it that way, which would mean that there aren't any issue.
This has worked quite well to release Windows games for Mac OS, where they are built against a DirectX compatiability library, allowing companies to release games for both platforms at the same time.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I guess that I'm in that "half of al /.ers" who never played any of the diablo games. *shrug*
Games are nice, but I can't believe half of all /.ers can agree any anything (besides reading /., apparently).
Dialbo 3 (Score:5, Funny)
The sounds you hear are college careers ending before they've even begun.
Re:Dialbo 3 (Score:5, Funny)
Oh krud. Fool me once shame on you, Blizzard, feel me twice shame on me. There goes my second chance at finally graduating. At this rate, I'll never be able to afford my own basement.
Parent
Re:Dialbo 3 (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, and it sounds like this:
click.
click.
clickclick.
click.
clickclickclick.
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick...
Parent
Re:Dialbo 3 (Score:4, Funny)
Well Diablo I wrecked my middle school career, and Diablo II got my high school career. I already graduated from college, so I guess Diablo III gets to take my marriage or job...
Parent
Phew (Score:5, Funny)
Think of the countless hours I saved by saving countless hours twice before!
Rating Pending (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair enough, but the www site asked me to enter my date of birth before showing me the cinematic teaser trailer. Then I watched the teaser trailer and didn't see anything even remotely offensive in it. Did anyone else see like a bare tit or extreme violence in there that I missed?
Just the existence of demons and monsters is an issue?
Re:Rating Pending (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Rating Pending (Score:5, Funny)
Did anyone else watching the (very impressive and representative) gameplay video think to yourselves, "Pick up the chipped star topaz. Pick it up. WHERE ARE YOU GO--PICK IT UP!!"?
Ahhhh, this is the game for me. :)
Parent
Bring out the nerf bat (Score:5, Funny)
I thought I'd be first with: It's clear that witch doctors are massively overpowered. I demand a nerf.
Oh the humanity (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, so, the gem (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah, so, the gem (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
"Highly Cooperative" (Score:5, Insightful)
The only thing that frightens me is that they describe the game as "highly cooperative."
That's what killed Diablo II for most of the legit players. If you were lucky, maybe as many as 2 people you knew in real life were also players, so you were left to play with strangers and 9 year-olds on Battle.Net. The 1.10 patch made the game no longer possible to finish by yourself.
It's tough to assemble a party of reasonable size from cheaters and griefers and beggars, let alone the guy with the hacked gear who drops in, kills Diablo, Pindleskin, Mephisto, then Baal, and then drops right back out while you're still in the middle of Act 1.
Co-Op is great, but please don't force those of us who enjoy playing the game to rely on the children who can't afford the $15 a month for WoW.
Re:"Highly Cooperative" (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure the game will have a single player mode. Wait, here from the FAQ:
You might also look into TOG, a multi-game guild with a minimum age of 25. This is when men's brains are finally fully formed, so you get a decent group of folks there.
Parent
What are we killing now? (Score:5, Funny)
We've already killed Diablo in Diablo 1. Then, in Diablo II, we killed him AGAIN, and killed his brothers and scores of underling bosses.
Are we now killing him a THIRD time, along with his brothers, cousins, college roommate, and that guy he talked to at the bus stop last week? How does Evil(tm) finance its operation and pay its underling bosses? More importantly, how many computer mice must the forces of Good(tm) sacrifice to stop this nonsense?!
Re:What are we killing now? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't know what happens in D3 obviously, but the soulstones are destroyed. My guess is something to do with Tyriel in Heaven. Maybe a war in Heaven leading to a new "Diablo"?
Parent
Re:What are we killing now? (Score:5, Interesting)
The whole thing was a plot by Tyriel to allow him to arrange the destruction of the world stone, the only thing standing in the way of his final conquest of heaven and earth.
Tyriel is clearly going to be the end boss of D3.
G.
Parent
Re:What are we killing now? (Score:5, Informative)
In case you didn't read the instruction manual that came with the first game, the only way to contain the flawed soulstone of mephisto was to implant it into the skull of the person most resistant to the lure of evil and to lock him away.
The hero of the first game was clearly aware of this and made the ultimate sacrifice, mind, body, and soul, to contain Diablo long enough for someone else to find a way to destroy him and his brothers and the soulstones.
Dammit, man, now you've got me geeking out.
Parent
Play it soon (Score:3, Funny)
I hear that Limbo of the Lost 2 is going to predominately feature Diablo 3 content.
Early alpha review up (Score:5, Funny)
Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclick...
Re:Early alpha review up (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
New diablo 2 patch (Score:5, Insightful)
Just browsing, and look what I found:
- Patch 1.12
Downloadable Installer Support
- If all required Diablo 2 '.MPQ' files are installed on the
hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.
For users that originally performed a 'Full Installation'
and wish to run without the CD, all '.MPQ' files should
be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory.
Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the
Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of
Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music
files and rename them to 'Diablo II Music' and
'Diablo II Expansion Music' respectively.
Anyone who did not perform a 'Full Installation' will need
to re-install from CD again to ultimately play without the CD.
In this case, a 'Full Installation' is required, followed by file
copy step noted above.
nice of them to think about letting us play these old games like this.
As a long time Diablo (d1/d2/d2x) fan... (Score:4, Insightful)
I just hope that Blizzard will NOT go down the route they have chosen to go with the latest d2x updates. That is, keep the best stuff (items) for online gaming.
This, essentially, sucks. What I want to do is play d2x, or d3 when it comes out, on my machine at home, with my characters on my computer, and not have to go online to create a character just to get this and that item, that I cannot get back to my homebrewn character. That just SUCKS.
As a result, I found myself using cheat packs that made such objects accessible to non bnet users. How pitiful is that?
I just DO NOT want to play online. That's not too much asking, is it?
Re:But (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Absolute evil can never be killed (Score:5, Funny)
... until all the money has been completely milked out of it.
Parent
Assuming you're not joking (Score:5, Informative)
Grab the skull on the right-hand side and use it as a slider. That's how it works here on Safari.
Parent
Re:website/browser problem (Score:5, Informative)
Gameplay video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPxRoG4g6mw [youtube.com]
and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnmD0aqDqTM [youtube.com]
Not as high quality as on the official site, but you take what you can get, eh?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Not as high quality as on the official site, but you take what you can get, eh?
Under the youtube video there's a "watch in high quality" link which will play it in similar quality to the official site.
Re:website/browser problem (Score:5, Informative)
If you add "&fmt=18" to the query string of a YouTube video, it'll play the high quality version (if there is one).
Parent
Re:There goes my productivity again (Score:4, Informative)
Doesn't the Blizzard native OS X installer [blizzard.com], also discussed here [slashdot.org], work on MacIntels?
I've been considering using Diablo II to wean myself from a year long umbilical WoW connection and hadn't had a chance to try it yet.
Parent
Re:Why isn't this a console title? (Score:4, Insightful)
All three next-generation consoles have USB ports, so just make it "requires keyboard and mouse".
I wish all console games supported it too, first-person shooters with a stupid gamepad and crappy analog sticks doesn't cut it.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
>no. to do that would be to alienate their core audience
What? Their greatest fans are going to go.. ''Oh, must hav... wait, there's a PS3 version too? Then I will not buy the PC version. Blizzard are traitors!''
I'm not talking about dumbing down (ha!) the PC version, I'm talking about doing console versions too.
I too have both a mouse and keyboard plugged into my PS3, but sadly console developers seems stuck in the 80s and, with a few exceptions, believe people actually PREFER the standard controller in
Re:Astonishingly boring? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Astonishingly boring? (Score:5, Interesting)
Because we all know that Diablo and Diablo 2 were just graphics and lots of zombies =/
The item generation (Slot machine principle), character templates and development, and fast paced gameplay was Diablo 1 & 2. Blizzard manage to include everything which makes a game fun in Diablo 1 & 2, not only for you, but for those playing with a group of friends too.
With patches changing the game dynamics of Diablo 2, the game provided us with several years of experimenting with different character templates.
Seems to me that you either haven't played Diablo games or "just don't get it" :)
But who cares?!
Diablo 3 is coming!!! Hell YEAH!
PS.
This coming from someone who just last month, played Diablo 2 on his MacBook at the airport. Not a single game has kept me coming back for more like the way Diablo 2 has =)
Parent