Weblogs Inc : Tag diablo-3

All You Need To Know: Diablo III

Games that are coming out soon have a lot of unknowns that the average person might not know. Who is this character inspired by? Is all the talk of volumetric fog or cel-shaded graphics really worthwhile? Do the game mechanics really seem solid, or are they lackluster? In All You Need To Know we provide information to help you fully appreciate what these upcoming games have to offer.

Feed your head after the jump.

Check out our collection of Diablo III related downloads here on Big Download!
%Gallery-26346%

Hands-on with Diablo III's desert wastes

click to enlarge

Yes, it hasn't even been a week since we brought you some hands-on impressions of Diablo III. One might say it's too soon to add to those impressions, and one might have a good point. Allow us to offer a counterpoint: It's Diablo III. This game, at the very earliest, will not release until 2025 (Q4, of course). As such, we have to provide you with any and all possible coverage. It would be irresponsible not to. Besides, there's some new stuff to cover here, and it's good stuff.
%Gallery-71950%

Blizzard interview: Leo Boyarsky and Kevin Martens on Diablo 3

We know that we've been fire-hosing Diablo 3 information on you, but keep those raincoats zipped because there's more incoming. In fact, we sat down with Leon Boyasrsky, lead world designer, and Kevin Martens, lead content artist, at BlizzCon. While they didn't drop any deafening secrets on us like ZOMG what the final class will be, they did go into further detail about the game.

Read on through for the full interview, and imagine what it'll be like if Martens gets his dream wish and they stick a Sideshow Collectibles Barbarian statue inside the Collector's Edition of the game. The chances of that actually happening are pretty much zero, but still ... we can dream.
%Gallery-70687%

BlizzCon 2009: A hoard of Diablo 3 info

Blizzard's playable Diablo 3 demo at this year's BlizzCon felt like a step backwards from last year's, mostly because the Rune system was removed completely. It'll be in the final game, but since Blizzard is still working on the Skills that the Runes enhance / rely on, the company said it didn't make sense to have the Runes in this time around. Bummer. It makes sense, but we still missed the bouncing, flaming skulls the Witch Doctor once issued.

Also, last year's area included a lot more dialogue, and had moodier lighting. This time we were smack dab in the middle of a giant desert, which didn't offer many chances to encounter spooky, candlelit chambers. There were a couple of dungeons you could drop down into this year, via swirling sands, but for the most part you were hoofing it around under the bright sun.
%Gallery-70687%

BlizzCon 2009: Martial arts secrets of Diablo 3's Monk

When you think hardcore-fantasy, swords-and-sorcery killing machine, you think "monk," right? At BlizzCon, Diablo 3's new character class, the Monk, was unlocked, supposedly having been inspired by pen-and-paper RPGs. According to Jay Wilson, almost all of Blizzard's characters are meant to hearken back to the "golden age of RPG gaming." The Monk is designed to be a fragile, melee-based character that performs some amazingly agile moves. With skills like the "Seven-Sided Strike" and "Way of the Hundred Fists," we'd say he's stripped from a different golden age -- from the reels of 1960s and '70s Kung Fu serials. The only detail that's missing are the Bruce Lee yips.
%Gallery-70687%

Battle.net 2.0 to allow cross-faction communication

As noted in my previous article on the subject, the new and improved Battle.net won't affect only StarCraft II -- among other things, the Real ID feature will allow you to see what other Blizzard games your real-life friends or acquaintances are playing, should they desire it. But that's apparently not the only perk for WoW players. Blizzard recently announced that migration of WoW accounts to Battle.net accounts will soon be mandatory, and posted a FAQ about it on the official website; one detail immediately caught my eye...

What will change in World of Warcraft after the forced migration?

The core gameplay experience will remain unchanged as a result of the migration. However, you'll be able to take part in all of the new Battle.net features, such as cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game chat.

That's right. Got a friend that plays Horde and you play Alliance? You'll be able to talk to them from inside WoW, even if they're on a different server. Heck, even if they're playing StarCraft II or Diablo 3, you'll still be able to chat with them. How cool is that?

To quell some concerns that'll surely get posted in the comments, the extent that others can utilize your Real ID is completely up to you. You decide who gets to see what information and to what extent -- if you want your best friend to be able to see what game you're playing or what server you're on, you can do that, but you can also prevent your annoying cousin from pestering you to play StarCraft II while you're raiding. No, Jeff, I actually can wait for you to "pwn" me. Gots to get me some purps.

Monk unleashes tiger fisted justice in Diablo III trailer

BlizzCon 2009 happened less than a week ago, but the announcements still resonate among fans. Big premieres included revealing that the Monk class would be included in Diablo III. Longtime players or the series might recall that there was a Monk class included in the Hellfire expansion for the original Diablo. However, that wasn't a Blizzard-made expansion, and is therefore not included in the game's official canon or lore.

The new class will be a fast-paced melee fighter that can chain together moves into devastating combos. There's still no word on when fans can expect the game to release, but we're hoping it will come out sometime in 2010. You can see the Monk in action in the Diablo III gameplay video shown after the jump.

Download HD Diablo III Monk Trailer (64 MB)
Download HD Diablo III Monk Gameplay Video (354 MB)
Check out all Diablo III downloads
%Gallery-26346%

Diablo III to have parental controls and region-specifc restrictions

When we got a chance to go hands-on with the newly revealed Diablo III Monk character at BlizzCon this weekend, we go to see blood. Lots of blood. Blood in extraordinary quantities (to quote Alan Moore). Yes, the action-RPG sequel will indeed be a showcase for developer Blizzard to see lots of creatures blow up a lot of the red stuff.

But what about countries where the red stuff in games is frowned upon? Over at Wired, Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson states, " Definitely for regions like Germany and Australia, we will have to change blood if we're going to sell there." And its looking like the game may not be sold in China at all with Wilson saying, "Because a lot of the restrictions there are really... we may not be able to do them. It may not be possible." Wilson also says that Diablo III will have parental controls that will allow anyone to tone down the blood and change its color.
%Gallery-26346%

BlizzCon 2009: The new Battle.Net

Blizzard finally unveiled the much-hyped new version of Battle.Net at BlizzCon and, as expected, it's a huge leap forward from the service that was first introduced with Diablo in 1996. Although, in typical Blizzard fashion, this is still a work in progress and could change by the time it eventually comes out. In 2013. (We kid, we kid.)

Everything shown was modeled from inside of Starcraft 2, which Blizzard is calling the Battle.Net 2.0 launch title. The developer will be working to expand it to older titles, possibly including legacy games like the original Starcraft and Warcraft. It's also safe to say that Blizzard must be working on a client-only version of Battle.Net, so you don't have to be inside a game to see when your friends are on.

Check out the gallery below, and you can read about all the new details of what Blizzard wants to be the "premiere matchmaking service out there," after the break.
%Gallery-70705%

Diablo 3 to include parental controls, region-specific gore edits

Diablo 3 designer Jay Wilson was on hand at the recent GamesCom, where he met up with Wired and frankly discussed the game's gore. He confirmed that the title would not only have parental controls, but could have a lot of its signature violence stripped for select regions. "Yeah, we're going to have to be able to turn off blood, change the color and things like that, because you can't have red blood in some regions, regions that we would very much like to sell the game in," Wilson said.

Though he doesn't foresee any issue in selling the game in Germany and Australia, Blizzard will have to carefully weigh its options when it comes to a release in in China. "With our relationship with NetEase, we recently got new information about what China really wants, and it's a lengthy list. It's really hard for us to cater to. We'll try. There's no reason we wouldn't want to go there, but there is a certain point where we'd have to redo so much of the game that it's not viable anymore," Wilson explained.

BlizzCon 2009: Day 2 pictures signal the end for BlizzCon this year

Well, BlizzCon 2009 is winding down for this year and Big Download has been very impressed with how Blizzard has handled the event. Having 26,000 Blizzard fans gather in one place but everything seemed to run like clockwork. All the panels and events started on time, the lines were full to play the new and upcoming games from the company and lots of unique stuff was sold at the Blizzard story, with lots of sell-outs of items

We have some pictures we took from today's events at BlizzCon to show you and that will in fact be our concluding port directly from the event. Make sure you check out WoW.com's continuing coverage of BlizzCon 2009 (including photos from Sharon Osbourne's husband's concert).
%Gallery-70740%

Big Download's BlizzCon 2009 coverage is sponsored by:

월드 오브 워크래프트 세번째 확장팩 블리즈컨 2009에서!!

블리즈컨 2009에서 WOW(월드 오브 워크래프트)의 세번째 확장팩이 공개되어 화제 입니다. 아제로스 세상의 변화를 그린 이 세번째 확장팩은, '대격변'으로 명명 되었으며, 호드와 얼라이언스 진영에 각각 고블린과 늑대인간 종족이 추가되었다고 하네요. 물론 만렙 제한도 80에서 85로 상향조정되었구요. 이뿐만 아니라, 게임속 맵상에도 변화가 있다고 하는데요, 칼림도어와 동부왕국 지역이 새롭게 변화하고, 바닷속 도시와 울둠, 그림바톨 등 새 고렙 지역이 등장한다고 합니다. 그외에도 블리자드는 블리즈컨 2009에서 디아블로 3의 새직업 수도사도 공개했다고 하는군요. 와우!! 일단 진정하고 계정부터 새로 끊어야겠어요!!!!!

[기사원문]

BlizzCon 2009: Even more Diablo III info from open Q&A panel

BlizzCon 2009 held an open Q&A panel with a ton of Blizzard's team members from Diablo III answering questions about the next game in the action-RPG series. Here are some of the highlights:

While the team is not talking about Player Vs Player gameplay in Diablo III at the moment they did say they want to avoid the "go hostile at any time" type of gameplay that was a part of the first two games in the series. The feeling is that kind of gameplay ruins the co-op modes.
The new Battle.net system will allow for a more sophisticated matchmaking system for Diablo III.
The designers do have plans for more variety in quests in the new game.
The dev team have some long term plans for the Diablo universe's Paladins but they would not go into details (sorry, no word if it will be a playable character)
They also want to support players who play the game "hardcore"
There are no plans to support user interface add-ons.
The gold system in Diablo III is planned to be improved and changed compared to Diablo III in terms of their use to buy items.
Randomly generated items are at the heart of the Diablo universe, according to the dev team. Unique items may have some different properties in Diablo III but will still be prominent.

Check out even more info after the jump:%Gallery-26346%

Big Download's BlizzCon 2009 coverage is sponsored by:

BlizzCon 2009: The Costumes

With the jam-packed costume contest taking place at BlizzCon in the evening, people spent all of yesterday parading around in their ginormous costumes in preparation. That's some dedication right there! Check out our massive gallery just below, and be sure to watch a video of the contest winners right after the break. The rogue above was one of the finalists, but she was ultimately robbed (robbed, we say!) of the top prize.

Stay tuned for more images -- BlizzCon ain't over yet!
%Gallery-70721%

BlizzCon 2009: Diablo III - Controlling the Monk

When it was revealed that the Monk would be the new playable character class for Diablo III, our minds went to thinking about one of our favorite TV shows: Kung Fu. Yes, we had the idea that we would be playing Blizzard's version of Caine, the Eastern monk who prowled the Wild West that preached peace but pretty much could kick everyone who tried to cross him

As it turns out, that's pretty much what the Monk is like when we actually got hands-on with a new build of Diablo III at BlizzCon 2009. His character look is both buff and also more serene than the Barbarian class. But he can also handle himself quite well with his various attack and combo moves.

We played the Monk in a desert setting in the game surrounded by monsters that wandered around above ground and, in one cash, below the sand as a lizard-like creature burrows around before jumping out to escape. The Monk is pretty powerful just on its own with its melee attacks. With swinging moves, fast fists and circular combos its clear that Blizzard has achieved its goal of making the Monk more of a fighting game character than we have seen before in a Diablo game.

Check out more info after the jump:
%Gallery-26346%

BlizzCon 2009 - Other BlizzCon coverage

Big Download has been concentrating our BlizzCon 2009 coverage on StarCraft II and Diablo III, naturally, but our sister site WoW.com has a whole team working the show and covering all aspects of the just announced third expansion pack World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

The site has info on the plot of Cataclysm along with coverage of BlizzCon's first Cataclysm panel where more info on the new two playable races was revealed. They also have coverage of last night's BlizzCon costume contest where there were even a few Diablo III and StarCraft II entries. Another sister site Joystiq is over at BlizzCon as well and among other stories they have posted word that Blizzard just might bring the Diablo series to consoles. Of course you can still check out out site for continuing BlizzCon coverage today and tomorrow.

Big Download's BlizzCon 2009 coverage is sponsored by:

BlizzCon 2009: Day one round-up

The news coming from BlizzCon has been fast and furious -- and we can hardly blame you if you haven't been able to keep up with the announcements coming from Anaheim so far.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: A little expansion by the name of Cataclysm was officially announced, with a world of pain now on its way to classic Azeroth and two new races. So what's new in Azeroth? Two new races, Goblins and Worgen (Horde and Alliance respectively), the reordering and rezoning of much of Azeroth, an array of new race/class possibilities, a brand-new secondary skill, and some shake-ups in class mechanics and character/guild advancement.
DIABLO 3: Meet the Monk, the game's latest class and -- so the trailer suggests -- a kick-ass martial artist. Also, surprise surprise, the game may still be coming to a console near you.
BATTLE.NET: Battle.net will gain new features in the expansion, including an Xbox-Livesque ability to see what your friends are playing and which servers they're on, in addition to sending messages to them.
PICTURES: Here's a map of the reordered post-Cataclysm Azeroth, a gallery of the art display at BlizzCon (containing some Cataclysm art, employee-decorated noobz, and StarCraft and Diablo universe pieces), a dedicated gallery for Cataclysm concept art, and a gallery of the costumes at BlizzCon.
VIDEOS: We have video for you of the Cataclysm trailer, what Azeroth zones will look like post-Cataclysm, and the animation for Human-to-Worgen transformation.
THE GUILD: The entire cast showed up and brought the funny at their live panel and at our reader meet-up. Gallery here!

%Gallery-70671%

The Monk delivers a holy smackdown in Diablo III gameplay footage

Today, Blizzard announced that the Monk will be the newest class addition for Diablo III. This gameplay presentation shown at BlizzCon 2009 shows the Monk in action as he uses fast moves chained together for devastating combos. One should also not that although the Monk is a melee character, it won't have the same toughness as a Barbarian, so the players who love fast paced combat will really want to give the Monk a try.

Download HD BlizzCon 2009 Diablo III Monk Gameplay Footage (354 MB)
Check out all Diablo III downloads
%Gallery-26346%

Big Download's BlizzCon 2009 coverage is sponsored by:

BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3 not yet ruled out for consoles

Blizzard COO Paul Sams mentioned at BlizzCon that they haven't yet ruled out Diablo 3 for consoles. "We've met with the major manufacturers, and they've made some pretty compelling arguments," Sams said. We can safely assume he means Sony and Microsoft, because it's nearly impossible to imagine this game running on the Wii.

Sure, it's what Blizzard says about all of its projects as they relate to consoles and yet, here we are, with nary a Blizzard console game in sight. But Sams did reiterate Blizz's interest saying that we will be seeing its games on consoles in the future. "Whether that's three years from now, five years, I can't say," Sams noted. "But I have no doubt that we'll be making games for consoles."

New Diablo III media features Monk, deserts

Hot on the heels of news that Diablo 3's new class will be the Monk, Blizzard unloaded a bunchton (that's internet-speak for "27") of new images on us. The screens not only give us a good look at some of the Monk's spells (he makes things explode, apparently), but there's also plenty of tasty concept art to ogle.

All of the locales in these shots show off a desert environment; could Lut Gholein and its surrounding areas make a return in Diablo 3? Let's hope so, this time sans annoying Horadric Staff gopher quests. You know what we're saying, right? Right, guys?
%Gallery-70687%