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Posts tagged game
Diablo 3 News and What We Know So Far
Aug 10th
Diablo 3 (aka Diablo III) news is here folks. I can stop going on about how perfect Diablo II was now.
Game Director Jay Wilson is holding a press conference at Gamescom 2010, unveiling a new feature and allowing gamers to get a taste of D3 through a demo. Lots of rumours are swirling about whether D3 could possibly come out as early as Q1/Q2 2011 but I think with Blizzard’s track record this is unlikely, though most gamers have probably forgotten the twelve year gap between StarCraft I and II now that the latter is out. Seems like the wait was worth it.
So, what do we know so far about Diablo 3?
Classes
Blizzard has been rolling out information on the classes for a couple of years now. So far, four out of a set of five classes have been revealed. They are currently:
- Barbarian – melee masher and walking slab of meat; only character to return from Diablo II.
- Witch Doctor – part necro, part pestilence-spreading filthmaster with pets.
- Wizard – noted by Blizzard as being similar to the sorcerer/ess.
- Monk – fast, holy warrior with team-friendly skills; not going to be similar to the one from Diablo: Hellfire.
A nice new feature is that characters can now either be male or female. Skills are a bit up in the air currently and Blizzard recently announced they are working on a pool system rather than a tier-by-tier system as in Diablo 3. I don’t think the fifth class will be revealed at Gamescom 2010 as Blizzard are likely to save this piece of information for BlizzCon in October (watch them reveal it at Gamescom and me eat humble pie).
Diablo Wiki has more information on classes, including an abilities list for each class that’s subject to change. All three classes are detailed quite thoroughly bar the monk, who was the last class to be announced. There’s little information on the monk’s abilities right now but, aside from fast melee skills, some sort of aura system akin to the D2 paladin is suspected to be implemented.
Storyline
Information on plot is scarce. Twenty years after the events of Diablo II, the forces of evil have been let loose once again. Oh yeah and Deckard Cain has gotten himself locked up in a cage and it’s up to you, as hero, to help the old codger down – go figure 
. The game will again take place in Sanctuary and over four acts. Act I is mainly set in Tristram and its Cathedral whereas Act II is set in a dustbowl called Borderlands (if claptraps are present I’m going to go on a killing spree). Basically, Blizzard is a little short on location ideas and Diablo 2’s settings are going to be rehashed but rehashed beautifully.
More information can be found here.
Foes
The axe-wielding goatmen are back and can wield staves. Be scared, be very scared. Seriously though, there’s some Victorian-looking spider beast who “might have a huge role in the storyline” (source currently unavailable for citation) and a Skeleton King who was King Leoric à la Diablo. So: some new; some back from the dead for another beating.
I have some sad news for you: Rakanishu – the lightning-spewing badass guardian of Stony Field’s Circle of Stones – may not be returning. I have lost the source for this and it was likely speculative at best but I thought I’d warn you anyway. Of course, I may have dreamt the whole thing.
Other sources of info
Here is a Twitter account you may spam with messages. Can’t forget the Tyrael-infused main site either, though D3IN.com is easier on the eye and faster loading so I’d recommend that. It is updated more, too.
To the left is an indication of the marketing campaign for Diablo 3. Well, actually it’s some piece of crap I came up with in 5 minutes (read: 5 hours) that might get your mind racing. Tyrael…dead? evil? Hopefully both and in need of our slaying services.
For now, you may have to suffice with a reminder of the trailer. Re-whet your appetite guys – Diablo 3 is coming.
101 Classics: Diablo II
Mar 2nd
Blizzard has already had one entry on this list and now it gets another for the magnificently macabre Diablo 2, a game that should have been considered a Class-A drug, for the first taste quickly gave way to cravings which did not diminish even after consecutive playthroughs.
Look at me!: The classes of D2
The single player had the feel of any great RPG. It began in a simple rogue encampment and ended in Hell itself, dragging the player through endless dungeons, tombs and wastelands in the process. You chose a class from the simple archetypes of sorcerer, amazon, necromancer, barbarian and paladin, and customised your character through your equipment, skills and attributes. This degree of character customisation may be considered lacking by today’s standards but the Diablo series focused on hacking your way through swarms of enemies, not on deciding whether an aquamarine dye would suit your new cloth robes. Individualisation did exist and it revolved around enhancing your character’s potential to dish out incredible amounts of pain as quickly as possible.
The Diablo series may have been the bastard bloody offspring from a more conservative fantasy lineage, but it did not skimp on storytelling. The cinematics of D2 blew any other game’s cutscenes out of the water and into the toilet bowl. Gameplay was similarly enhanced by a score that persuaded us that we really were alone in those barely lit catacombs. The plot was not bloated by a never-ending supply of sidequests and so the main storyline of overcoming the evil Diablo and his brothers was always centre-stage. Modern RPGs could learn a thing or two from this simplicity.
Its multiplayer, however, was the real jewel in Diablo 2’s thorny crown and the reason for its endurance over the years. Battle.net was a gaming service that meant that players could chat and connect to multiplayer games to fight monsters or each other. In an age of Xbox Lives this may not seem like an impressive feat, but remember that large-scale, accessible multiplayer services began with Battle.net, which launched with D2’s predecessor in 1997. The fact that Diablo 2 has maintained a legion of players, who keep fanning its flames a decade on, stands as a testament to the unwavering potency of online gaming.
Additional media: Tyrael vs The Dark Wanderer; Diablo is slain; Player vs Horde
