Diablo 3 News July 24, 2008 Read this blog entry from former Blizzard North employee Michael Huang and his opinion on the development of Diablo 3 since he left the team five years ago. Some excerpts: "some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me." "The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago. One of the reasons why the Barbarian return shocks me so much is that I always felt that the Barbarian character class was the most broken of the classes in Diablo II." "I'm glad to see that Blizzard is still committed to releasing titles that aren't first-person shooters; such a shame that we won't be seeing this title on the shelves for another year or two at the earliest." Read the Michael Huang's full blog entry here July 23, 2008 PCGamer has announced that the cover of their October 2008 issue which will hit newsstands on August 19th. Supposedly, it will feature never before seen screenshots and maybe...dare I say... more character classes? I omly buy PC Gamer occasionaly, but this is one issue I'm picking up for certain. I also happen to have a scanner... July 16, 2008 Online Petition Against Diablo 3 Art Direction A petition has been started by a group of Diablo fans demanding that the Blizzard developers of Diablo 3 undergo a “Renewed artistic direction for Diablo 3.” Their main complaint is that the current demonstration version of Diablo 3 is not dark or gritty enough, and will tarnish the good name of the popular Diablo franchise. Other major gripes noted in the petition were how cartoonish the character modeling was and how much the game borrows from World of Warcraft. These opinions are based on the early Diablo 3 screenshots and the gameplay demos released so far. So far, Blizzard has not responded to this issue publicly. Blizzard had already gone through at least three reiterations of Diablo 3 concept artwork to get the look they think fans will want. A complete revamp of the artistic direction could push the game back by half a year if not more. Also from the Diablo 3 trailers and previews, it appears the developers are aiming to make Diablo 3 more accessible to a wider market; that is, expanding more into the casual gamer market. What Diablo 3 should look like: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 July 14, 2008 Diablo Battle Chest No. 1 in Sales! Following the announcement of Diablo 3 on June 28th, Blizzard’s Diablo Battle Chest compilation hit the second spot for the best selling PC game for US retailers. It was only beaten by The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff Expansion Pack. The Battle Chest contains the original Diablo, Diablo II, and the Diablo II expansion: Lord of Destruction and was originally released in 2003. |
       
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