Blizzard Announces Diablo 3 423
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.
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.
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)
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
He might be referring to the fact that blizzard doesn't seem to do terribly well on the console side; ghost got canceled, and I haven't heard anywhere close to the same kind of praise for things like lost vikings as for SC, WC and Diablo.
The only PC game they botched was a WC spinoff, lord of the clans (or something), which was never actually released since they couldn't make it nearly perfect.
In general blizzard has the track record of pixar. Valve, Nintendo, and Square Enix release good games, but every P
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
IOW, a different Blizzard than the one in the article.
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Other forms of payment (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
then we will never have games written for the OS.
Maybe one of the reasons you'll never have games written for the OS is that you can't count on anything to work from one release to the next (like your example of games under WINE.)
Re: (Score:3)
1. Linux desktop users make up a tremendously small portion of the home PC market. The development effort to port everything to Linux and support it is likely not to cover the added costs.
2. Many people run Linux at home to get good use of hardware that can't handle Microsoft XP or Vista. Most modern games wouldn't run on those machines even if they were ported to Linux.
3. A portion of the Linux user-base are free software advoca
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well shit, in that case I can just run Windows inside Qemu or VMWare and run all my apps that way. Why bother making any Linux software at all?
Using wine is a hack. It only works sometimes, in some cases, and chances are good that upgrading it will break things. It's not an excuse for not releasing a Linux version. If I wanted Windows, I would just go buy it.
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.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not if the developers have been working with the aim of not breaking under Wine.
Exactly, but they aren't going to do that if we don't ask. Write to them and let them know that they need to target Wine / Linux as well as whatever versions of Windows they write for.
Better yet, as another poster mentioned, wait a few weeks before writing to them. That way, we won't flood them all at once and then die down again.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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).
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody wants to launch a game for Linux, they prefer to stay with the 90% of the OS market and Windows...
So let them compile against Wine 1.0.
Re: (Score:2)
They're not that dumb, obvious there will be a surge of emails demanding Linux and it will not be a steady demand.
So wait two months before you write. But write.
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Re:Dialbo 3 (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, and it sounds like this:
click.
click.
clickclick.
click.
clickclickclick.
clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick...
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...
Phew (Score:5, Funny)
Think of the countless hours I saved by saving countless hours twice before!
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:2)
By the way, there are two things I don't want to ever touch in my life, because addiction and severe negative consequences are all but certain: hard drugs and WoW.
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't WoW more like Warcraft 4?
No, if WoW was anything like that I would have played it. Do we know if they have any plans to go back to the old Warcraft formula? Cause I loved it!
Re: (Score:2)
The success of WoW spelled the death of Warcraft as we knew it.
I don't know why they made WoW as opposed to WoD (World of Diablo) in the first place, the RPG being closer to the WoW concept than the RTS. But what's done is done.
But (Score:2)
Isn't the monster at the end already beaten??
Re:But (Score:4, Funny)
Nothin' better! (Score:2)
There is nothing better .. than a second victory ..
Absolute evil can never be killed (Score:5, Funny)
... until all the money has been completely milked out of it.
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)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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. :)
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)
website/browser problem (Score:2)
I can't check out the trailers because their stupid age selection dialog is all mouse controlled dropdowns (no keyboard controls) AND they only have 8 selections. Therefore, I can only be born January 1-8, thru August 1-8, 2001-2008. At least that's the way it is in Safari. WTF?
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, same thing in FF3. I am glad though that they believe the overtly violent content should not be shown to 7 year olds. /sarcasm
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?
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).
Yeah, so, the gem (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah, so, the gem (Score:5, Funny)
"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.
Re: (Score:2)
The 1.10 patch made the game no longer possible to finish by yourself.
Did it? I don't recall that, The one problem I had with the Diablo games was that your character could get so absurdly powerful that you could beat anything.
I used to play as a sorcerer (memory fails, I don't remember the class name). By the time I stopped playing my character was so deadly that other players in the party had to run away before I used my offensive spells, because they'd get creamed too, no matter how well armoured they were.
It got a bit tedious in the end, all I'd ever see was dead things,
Re: (Score:2)
But if you don't have friends who are you going to tell the password too so you aren't playing alone?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
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"?
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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, at the end of the Diablo II expansion, Tyrael destroys the Worldstone, and the gist of things is that Anything Could Happen after that. (Including Blizzard co-branding a new Diablo III mouse with extra-rugged buttons.)
Play it soon (Score:3, Funny)
I hear that Limbo of the Lost 2 is going to predominately feature Diablo 3 content.
Is it just me... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Now, certainly, they are probably using the best $60
Early alpha review up (Score:5, Funny)
Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclick...
Re:Early alpha review up (Score:5, Funny)
Lots of empty pages? (Score:2)
Is someone still uploading the content to the web server or something? Most pages are empty (the pages are there, but no content)...
I want to know what are the Mac requirements.
System Requirements? (Score:2)
Does anyone know the system requirements? More specifically: Will it run fine with my current generation Mac Mini? I know this is Blizzard, a really good game publisher, so the answer is likely to be "Yes.", however, I'd like some details. Anyone?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
System Requirements: You totally can't run it.
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.
Need a new mouse. (Score:2)
Finally!
I do not like my actual mouse - but sadly it still works somehow. Coming up with the reason to buy a new mouse is quite hard.
But Diabolo is for rescue!!!
The game is notoriously known for its capability of rendering mice dysfunctional by wearing down left button very very quickly. My friend playing thru Diabolo I & II (with expansions) went thru 5(!) left mouse buttons (he was replacing only button mechanics itself) and one right mouse button.
Diabolo III - Banzaii!!
4 years too late? (Score:2)
Am I the only one who thinks this is quite a few years too late?
I mean, yeah, it might be OK, but... I donno. The hype for this built up and waned all on it's own years ago, before it even existed. Seems to me they should have started work ont his 1-2 years after Lord of Destruction came out.
Also, isn't the entire Diablo 1 and 2 staff "seeking success elsewhere" now?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, Hellgate: London wasn't a particularly great game, which really annoyed me since I bought it on release after hearing that it was done by the same team that worked on Diablo.
Sadly the game mechanics were a bit dull, although not broken as such, and the storyline more or less non-existant. It has so much potential though, with an interesting mix of classes, and randomly generated maps to keep things interesting.
I also like that they made multiplayer more or less a free MMO, but I've yet to be able to l
Quick! (Score:2, Funny)
Buy Logitech stocks now! ;)
Kinda looks like NWN (Score:2)
Of course if it played like NWN with a new engine I'd be all over it. I doubt it, though.
I was expecting a console release (Score:3, Interesting)
I was expecting Diablo 3, but I actually thought that Blizzard would move it to a console title.
Business-wise, getting some of that juicy console money seems like a no-brainer for Blizzard (or their corporate masters). The *-craft games are somewhat problematic to move to the consoles, but Diablo looks like an excellent candidate: fondly remembered IP, a fallow period so people can't complain too much about gameplay changes, and the action heavy diablo style suits the consoles well.
But no. Windows and Mac, they say. Seems like a missed opportunity to me.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe Blizzard is bitter about Snowblind muscling in on their territory and basically "owning" the console Diablo clone market with games based on their engine. Didn't the gameplay video look very similar to all those snowblind engine games, ripple water and everything? Blizzard's playing catchup now.
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: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.
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't the Blizzard native OS X installer [blizzard.com], also discussed here [slashdot.org], work on MacIntels?
Oh, great job! Now he won't even have until Diablo III comes out anymore to enjoy what would have been left of his life!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
If I recall, that PS1 version also had your character moving at double normal speeds, which seemed a little strange. I never played it, but a friend of mine in high school owned it after I got him addicted to the PC version.
Also seems it was published by EA. Bet you wouldn't see that happening these days.
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)
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 =)
Re: (Score:2)
You should be right, but yet there is something about Diablo's art direction and sound direction that draws me back.
There's room for both clickfest games and more sophisticated games. I can't think, offhand, of any computer game with deep characters that were interesting to interact with. Maybe you can suggest something? The closest I've seen is probably Planescape: Torment.
Re: (Score:2)
Not that I particularly care about Diablo 3, since I wasn't a fan of the first two, but this exact attitude is why the 'mindless shoot-em-up' genre, one I'm a huge fan of, is all but dead.
Re: (Score:2)
MASSIVE DAMAGE
Massive damage eh? Will there be real time weapon change and actual historical battles that take place in japan with giant enemy crabs that you flip over?
Re: (Score:2)
People are more interested in deep characters...
Lately I've been enjoying burst of gaming via rockband, GH, wii fit, the virtual console, some puzzle game like zack & wiki... etc. Games with deep characters and complex storyline are not always what I'm looking for. Bring on the mindless mouse clicking!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)