Gamespot has conducted an interview with Rob Pardo, the Executive Vice president of game design at Blizzard and the Executive Producer of Diablo 3.
The interview talks of how the game was made and how long ago, which is about three years, as Blizzard North was working on a different copy first. The game is really far along and fun to play already, so they felt it’s the right time to announce it. Continue reading this entry »
Most of you may not know this, but the Blizzard Store was just updated, making the Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction client available for digital download. If you already own the games and wish for digital copies, simply create an account at the Blizzard Store and register your cd-keys.
The titles are both on sale for a small price of $19.99 each.
The WWI has brought us not only Diablo 3 this year, but has also touched on the other two franchises that Blizzard has. The links below are not from Blizzard websites, they are from a local ISP provider’s gaming website, however the screenshots are placed nicely on one page there and there is direct link downloads to the trailers. However there are also links in those pages to the respective Blizzard websites.
Diablo 3:
Trailer can be seen on the website directly or downloaded below.
The FAQ for the newly and officially announced Diablo 3 is now available on the official website here.
The FAQ goes through details such as that there will be five classes, the game is a sequel and not a prequel, it will have many new features, new customization options, new physics system, interactive environments, use a new Battle.net with plenty of new features, Tristram will be featured, Deckard Cain will be featured, you can choose your gender, there will be a single player mode, class based quests, NO release date yet ;), and last but not least, the game will ship on Macs, with no pricing details yet available.
There is a trailer, it’s in the live stream if I find it, I’ll post it in the thread.
There is also gameplay shown on the live feed:
It’s apparently still an action RPG. Same interface — red health and blue orbs. Skill bar at bottom. 3/4 overhead perspective. Character with 2 axes hacking at demons in what appears to be a foggy cathedral. Has a jumping attack where he smashes the two axes into the ground.
There are probably gameplay vids on youtube, will post them in the Diablo 3 General forums for this topic as I find them!
Blizzard has just posted the 6th image, but unfortunately it does NOT yet reveal the mystery character. Blizzard has decided instead to mess with our minds and release an image entitled “ice5andahalf.jpg” instead of “ice6.jpg”. Behold:
The new image does however contain a new symbol, which happens to be a winking smiley:
Apart from that, the runes appear to be glowing brighter than ever before, and remain in the formation of a pentagram, so the hopes that it is Diablo encased within the ice still run strong. Also apparent in the new picture is the appearance of what looks to be either a horn, or a claw.
While Blizzard is expected by most to announce the new game upon the launch of their Worldwide Invitational, they may simply opt to announce it tomorrow. Regardless, we’ll be paying close attention to reveal as updates are made available.
Those present at the Blizzard Worldwide Initiative were also able to receive this book, which has Diablo’s face emblazoned onto it. Is it a sign that the game being announced will, indeed, be Diablo 3? I can only hope so!
Eurogamer has a new interview up with Valve about the future of PC gaming and how many people currently feel that the industry is dying off.
One of the justifications from Valve that the PC market was not dying was their comment about Blizzard and their WoW franchise.
And then there is the game that many claim has been the death of PC gaming, but that Valve sees as its greatest success story, and its future. “Until recently, the fact that World of Warcraft was generating 120 million dollars in gross revenue on a monthly basis was completely off the books,” Newell says. “Essentially, [Blizzard is] creating a new Iron Man every month, in terms of the gross revenue they’re generating as a studio. Any movie studio would be shouting about that from the rooftops. But it was essentially invisible.”
Newell thinks that WOW is “arguably the most valuable entertainment franchise in any media right now”, and also believes, rightly, that it could only ever have happened on the PC.
If you’re not at this year’s Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, you’ll still be able to follow the event through the live video stream provided through Blizzard’s website just so you don’t miss all of the important events going on. To get hooked up, you’ll first need to download the Octoshape player and have it installed onto your computer.
Once you’ve got it installed, you can view Blizzard’s live stream of the Worldwide Invitational by clicking on the following link: http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/streams.xml
The opening ceremony begins at 11:45am Central European Time (GMT +2). You can check out what time it is using the World Clock.
Regardless, the full image has since been posted of the so-called “Evil Penguin”, as you can see here:
The runes appear to be highlighted and glowing in the new picture. Can anyone guess what the latest rune is supposed to be? Update: One guess is that the new rune is a Vegvisir, a viking compass, no doubt in reference to The Lost Vikings.
