Diablo 3

[LadyCrimson]

The new splash image is making the face more apparent. In spite of myself, I'm finding this all kind of exciting.

 

Genius marketing people....

 

The inventory thing

That's bothered me in all action-RPG's. I want endless stashes...or at least several "pages" worth of stash. I mean, c'mon, BG it's not, don't give me pretentious excuses about having to make decisions on which almost-impossible-to-get per playthrough sets you want to try for at any one time. Just gimmie the room for the loot. In SP I'm using the mod that pretty much gives you endless storage and allows you share between all your characters - it also allows you to have that Super-Diablo or whatever he was appear in the SP game. :D

 

I actually liked diablo 2. It wasn't a great roleplaying experience of any sort, but I did enjoy it just for a little relaxing hack and slash.

Agreed. They're monster bashing and loot-based games, that's it. And personally, I don't mind if they change it some or give it a little more depth, but I think I'd prefer the Diablo series to stay in that general vein, at least.

Edited June 27, 2008 by LadyCrimson

[Monte Carlo]

^ I generally agree with these comments - Diablo 2 is so good at what it was designed for how do you improve it? Graphics? Hmmm. Not really, there are loads of imitations like Dungeon Siege etc. More role-playing? No, that's not what D2 was about. MMORPG seems logical, but again not what the original was about either. D2 is a great hack and slash looting game, it's still on the shelves shifting copies. It's the Bat Out of Hell of PC gaming.

 

Remember when they remade the VW Beetle, y'know just slapped a new bodykit on a VW Golf? That's right, the convertible version was so that you could actually hear the people laughing at you. D3 could go the same way.

 

Cheers

MC

[Magister Lajciak]

Good finds everyone - so a Diablo 3 announcement tomorrow seems very likely now!

[Tigranes]

I played D2 a lot - for about a year after it first came out, I played +3 hours every day. I think I was 13. It was beautiful how well polished a game could be - in terms of general experience no game I have played before or since has even come close to how 'perfect' Diablo 2 was in that aspect, not even other Blizzard games. You could scarcely find a typo, or an out-of-place region, or a pointlessly frustrating area. Story was crap of course, but it had enough atmosphere, and consistency & depth of atmosphere, to carry you through, and even loot runs (Meph run, Diablo run, and that infamous first level in Act 5, the siege grounds - I must have gone over that hundreds of times) were exciting every time. Sure, I probably couldn't play it now, but for me D2 had more enjoyable grinding than in any game I've since tried (which is probagbly why I can't get into MMOs).

 

I don't know. I'm interested and probably will follow a D3 just to see how the heck they propose to improve that kind of game. I mean, D2 is pretty impossible to improve, not because it's the best game ever, but because it's just something absolutely finished.

[Magnum Opus]

Magnum Opus: You should play it MP a friend or two some time. Quite a different game and many of the things you list as disadvantages you'll likely find turn into advantages.

*nods* I considered that while I was playing. It's obvious that the game was simply designed for more than one person, even single player player mode, and with that in mind I can see two of those issues just sort of... evaporating.

 

Sadly, I have no friends to play with, so my impressions were formed on a purely offline, one-player-only experience, and by that measure there's too much about D2 that I find irritating for me to get all that excited about D3. Interested? Certainly. Glad they're continuing the series? Absolutely. But not too much more than that. Will probably end up being a last resort kind of purchase for me, like D2 was. I'm sure I'll end up liking it in that capacity, too.

 

Provided they don't fup it uk somehow, naturally. Series have been fupped uk before, after all.

 

Just gimmie the room for the loot. In SP I'm using the mod that pretty much gives you endless storage and allows you share between all your characters - it also allows you to have that Super-Diablo or whatever he was appear in the SP game. :D

Kind of ironic, then, that BG actually did give people enough space to set up a hoard of items, and even carry around pretty much everything they ever wanted. For me, though, it doesn't matter what kind of game it is; I'm a terrible klepto when it comes to any game that has items for me to pick up, and if those items look even vaguely interesting/unique/useful, they're MINE! :D.

 

And it was worse because I never knew what I should hang on to, either. Ghost armour? Is that the best there is, or what? Only three sockets... should I hold out for four? I've aaaalllmost got the runes for a Word, but just one more chipped skull and I can cube up a perfect one... Sooo many neat things about that loot system but I could only store the barest fraction of what I wanted to.

 

Didn't know about the endless storage and item sharing mod, though... thanks for the heads-up . Will have to track that one down. *has only a vague idea of what a Super-Diablo could be, but is intrigued*

[Humodour]

I probably couldn't play it now

 

You lie!

[Moatilliatta]

I just love Blizzard Warcraft 4: Ghost!

[Humodour]

Actually, that shows up for Warcraft 5 and 6, too. It just means it's a ghost forum.

 

Unfortunately, this is also true for Diablo 3, 4, 5 and 6... meaning while we definitely know Blizzard plans to make Diablo 3 soon, there's less indication it's definitely now.

 

I still maintain that's what the WWI is about though.

 

EDIT: Of course, I could have sworn I tested for a Diablo 4 forum initially and turned up nothing. It's entirely possible Blizzard threw these up very recently to try and let the rumour mill itself deal with their own slip-up. With Blizzard, it wouldn't surprise me.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Krezack

[Moatilliatta]

This is strange, last time I tried putting in war4 into the search link It would have the drop down menu saying Warcraft 4:ghost and similar for 5 and 6, now it just says all forums. Blizzard is screwing with my mind.

 

And yes I agree on the D3 thing.

[Morgoth]

Looks more like this....

 

[Humodour]

 

Moat: what, it doesn't now? Interesting!

 

Edit: I also wonder how much this has Bioware and Obsidian ****ting their pants. As individuals they're probably going "Hell yeah" but as a company "Oh no".

Edited June 27, 2008 by Krezack

[Moatilliatta]

http://www.blizzard.com/shared/blizz-com/i...notext-640x.jpg

There is one for the 1.10 patch where it mentions hell freezing over.

Moat: what, it doesn't now? Interesting!

I can't make it do it at least.

 

Also:

[Humodour]

Ya. By all accounts they're making sure they keep things sufficiently ambiguous. I don't doubt that it was deliberately chosen to appear superficially similar to the Lich King, but I highly doubt they'd got to the effort of a teaser splash page just to announce a game they've already announced.

 

It'll be a multi-release event, where they discuss Wrath, SC2, and another new project - Diablo 3.

[Xard]

Edit: I also wonder how much this has Bioware and Obsidian ****ting their pants. As individuals they're probably going "Hell yeah" but as a company "Oh no".

 

I don't think so. They're not targetting at the same audience with their current projects

 

Those companies responsible for Sacred 2 or Argonauts however...

[Moatilliatta]

I think it will be possible to watch a live stream here. Careful as it tends to be really slow and take the rest of the browser with it.

[Humodour]

Edit: I also wonder how much this has Bioware and Obsidian ****ting their pants. As individuals they're probably going "Hell yeah" but as a company "Oh no".

 

I don't think so. They're not targetting at the same audience with their current projects

 

Those companies responsible for Sacred 2 or Argonauts however...

 

Largely irrelevant. Target genre isn't important so much as target audience, which is often interested in multiple genres.

 

I recall for example Icewind Dale was overshadowed by Diablo 2, while Half-Life 1 which was overshadowed by Quake 3. Similarly, PS:T was arguably somewhat overshadowed by BG2. All these titles tend to do very well over time as cults, but it's the initial sales that are actually important to publishers.

 

It's largely related to how the average gamer doesn't buy multiple games in a certain time-period, but the single most hyped game of that period (and unfortunately, but not unpredictably, usually the more 'superficially' fun one). Obviously exceptions exist in various ways, with us as the prime example. It's a phenomenon not restricted to games, where in general a high quality, and even cheap product can flop because it was overshadowed by a more widely hyped product, by one that was simply released a bit earlier, or even by one that's more anticipated but expected to be released later. I'm no expert, but I think something like this happened with the console wars and the xbox (well, one of them... they're always competing).

Edited June 27, 2008 by Krezack

[Musopticon?]

I doubt Liquid Entertainment cares much for Diablo 3 since their target audience is the one that gobbled up Mass Effect. Just like ME, Argonauts is so character-driven that it's hardly an rpg anymore.

 

As for Ascaron, they have held strong with just the European market for half a decade now, I doubt they'll **** their pants yet.

[LadyCrimson]

Kind of ironic, then, that BG actually did give people enough space to set up a hoard of items, and even carry around pretty much everything they ever wanted. For me, though, it doesn't matter what kind of game it is; I'm a terrible klepto when it comes to any game that has items for me to pick up, and if those items look even vaguely interesting/unique/useful, they're MINE! :D.

Yeah, I'm like that too. In WoW/BC I created my own Guild and had all my characters join it so I could purchase and use all 6 of the Guild Bank tabs, on top of each individual characters fairly large stash space. heheh I don't remember how much "stash" BG actually had, beyond it was more than Diablo games. I do remember always running out of room in BG, too, tho. Diablo1 was even worse...no town stash at all.

 

The mod is called PlugY. Be aware it's considered a hack by most trading forums (w/good reason) so if you ever did want to play w/others to trade via "open" bnet, you'd be considered illegit. You can't use PlugY on closed bnet, however, so you're safe in that regard. I never did like ATMA's configuration, with all it's files and such. I much prefer it to be all in-game.

 

Looks more like this....

It does look a bit more like Lich King eyes today - altho imo the brow between the eyes isn't quite right for it. Still, tomorrow it may look more like some other franchise character, or something completely new. They're just messing with us, as usual. If all this is for WotLK, I bet Blizzard is laughing at all the D3 furor that's arisen because of this.

Edited June 27, 2008 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

I know I'm double-posting, you can spank me later, but a completely different line - don't know if this was mentioned already earlier, but it's been pointed out to me that this could just be leading to an announcement for a new battle.net...maybe in a steam-like style...with all the references to all their franchises rather than just one etc...and not a new game.

[Moatilliatta]

The only people who have some reason to **** their pants is Flagship studios and even their demographic is quite different from Blizzards, unless of course D3 will be a hybrid play-for-free-or-pay-for-more game.

 

@Lady Crimson

Rob Pardo mentioned an announcement for a new game in an interview. It could be a masterly deception from him but I highly doubt it.

 

Edit:

Found it.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Humodour]

It does look a bit more like Lich King eyes today - altho imo the brow between the eyes isn't quite right for it. Still, tomorrow it may look more like some other franchise character, or something completely new. They're just messing with us, as usual. If all this is for WotLK, I bet Blizzard is laughing at all the D3 furor that's arisen because of this.

 

Somehow, I doubt they should be laughing about the fact they just pissed disenchanted a bunch of fans. Diablo 3 isn't a 'right' or an 'obligation', but if you're going to parade about with teasers and splash screens, you don't deliberately foster hype for what the product is not unless your aim is a PR nightmare.

 

Id est: Blizz ain't stupid; it's not a WotLK or SC2 announcement (even if it isn't a Diablo 3 announcement).

 

Edit: and lol, http://diablo3.no (Norway) redirects to Blizzard.com and is registered to Vivendi. Normally they're smart enough to not redirect the diablo3 domains they hold (e.g. http://www.diablo3.com/). Based on a whois, creation date and update date were the same time: 2006 (which is very roughly when Diablo 3 is speculated to have been really officially given the green light at Blizzard).

 

Also, the Diablo 3 server/domain was last modified 8 days ago. It was created 10 years ago. It's currently hidden from the world by a time-out message, but Blizzard owns it and it runs Apache. No doubt getting it ready for when all the country-specific portals redirect to it. They also registered diablo3.ru in April this year.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Krezack

[Magnum Opus]

(snip)

Re: BG: BG1 was a bit worse, but BG2 had bags of holding. Score. Couldn't take everything that dropped, but certainly all of the interesting stuff, provided one kept one's buying-selling frequency at around once per stronghold-sized quest. The leftover stuff usually wasn't valuable enough for me to worry about.

 

Diablo 1 at least allowed me to drop my stuff on the ground, though, without it vanishing after a certain amount of time. I filled Tristram to the brim that way once... literally paved the place with gold. D2... tried that once, but then after a while noticed that someone was wandering off with my stuff. Was sorely tempted to just let Diablo n' Bros. have their way with the townsfolk after that. Steal my stuff, will ya? Consign them all to hell!

 

I like the way you dealt with the WoW issue, too. I'm always looking for little tricks like that whenever a game doesn't provide enough secure storage space. In-game item management is always preferable, but if they're being unreasonable about it I have no qualms about finding (or writing) my own third-party inventory utility to take care of things.

 

Wouldn't use it online, but then... I don't play online, so no issues there.

[Humodour]

Hey guys, so it turns out it was The Lost Vikings:

 

[H]

Bravo!

[Humodour]

Hey guys, Blizzard is giving out these notebooks at the announcement day:

 

And another photo of Diablo:

 

 

Need I say more?

Edited June 28, 2008 by Krezack