DiabloFans

For those of you whom have a subscription or recently purchased the November 2009 Gameinformer Magazine, will notice this...Gameinformer's exclusive look at the new character for Diablo III, the monk. Article by Phil Kollar.


"At Blizzcon 2009, Blizzard unveiled the new class, and the developers were explicit about how influential fighting games were on its design. Unlike the lumbering barbarian, the only other melee-focused class announced thus far, the monk will be a difficult class to master, presenting a challenge for skilled players looking to unlock the most powerful abilities." - Gameinformer



"Blizzard has confirmed that the monk draws his great strength from holy magic, leaving the door open for more mystical powers. This helps explain the early gameplay videos of the monk in action, which include large groups of demonic monsters exploding into fountains of blood upon impact from the monk's fists." -Gameinformer


We are all anticipating the arrival of Diablo III and much more can be expected for this game to contend with the rest of the action RPG games that are out in the market today. More information can be found here at www.gameinformer.com/mag including Blizzard's interview with Gameinformer in regards of the monk's moves and what is happening with the rest of the Diablo III classes.

As part of the release of the new character "The Monk", Blizzard has also shown us the new environment beyond the Caldeum, "The Boarderlands". Here are some concept artwork and information for you all.



"The Borderlands are among the most savage habitats in our world, even these deadly lands were no match for the superior resolve of Caldeum in its prime." -Blizzard.com



You can find out more about the Boarderlands on Blizzard's main website here.

Bashiok recently commented on a member's question about Monster Mobs that aren't too generic.

Battle.Net Member
This is more of a "is it easily possible?" or a "how can this be done?" to the techies out there who know 3d modeling and making games:

I was looking at the new Unburied screenshots, namely this one (http://us.media.blizzard.com/1901200114/_images/screenshots/ss81-hires.jpg).

On his own, the Unburied looks pretty cool. When there are three or four standing next to each other, exactly identical, it looks kind of less-amazing. What I want to know is can there possibly be a RANDOM generation of features on mobs (particularly big ones like this guy where you really notice it) such as the position/number of spikes on his back, the size and shape of head and limbs, etc?

Does this put too much strain on CPU/GPU to be feasible? Will creating the code for this random model maker take a team of coders six months of hard work to get working? Would it be easier to just design say, 10 models of each mob and then when populating a map with mods, randomly select from these 10 models?

Bashiok
Well to be perfectly honest all of these shots are set up. Generally you're probably not going to run into that many at one time. So a couple dispersed within a sea of every other monster, you don't see the stark repetition. I don't think normal spawning conditions would have that many facing you at once, especially because they're kind of tough.

As far as having randomized creatures... mmm... it would take a lot of work but of course it wouldn't be impossible. The question is though, does that massive undertaking just to make sure a creature doesn't look the same as the one next to it matter when they're dead within a matter of seconds? Probably not.

Or a more important question is, how many unique types of monsters do we cut from the final game so this guy doesn't always have an arm in the same place?
The stark reality of production schedules! They give me nightmares too.

There will be creature variations, but it's not quite the same as randomization of body parts.

So there you have it, you probably won't see screens filled with nothing but the unburied.

This video interview with Leonard Boyarsky, provided by GamePro, goes over more in-depth about runes, Battle.net info, and gameplan with Diablo 3, along with additional awesome gameplay footage of Diablo 3. Information provided by gamestar.de



You can watch the interview video here:
http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=452&pk=11739

Confirmed by many sites on the web such as, IGN and Gamespot... Blizzard's World of Warcraft Publisher has reported they will not be making a presence at the E3 event for 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. convention center June 2-4. If Blizzard's biggest franchise not attending, probably due to WotLK already released, future hope is down greatly for the Diablo and Starcraft franchises attending E3.

"A lot of people saw Activision Blizzard listed on E3 and just assumed we were going, but that's not the case," a WoW rep said.

Blizzard is keeping their mouths shut for now on when the next event they will attend.

Update:

Blizzard's Bob Colayco speaks to the community...

"Our current focus is on the ongoing development of Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft. We are already planning to participate in a number of shows this year and look forward to sharing the latest news on our games at these events."

I would just like to give out a special thanks to everyone that has provided all the information given to this site. It really means something when you have dedicated people putting out their efforts and putting aside their daily life for others in the game we all love.

Just to name a few people:

Mockery - Handling the live blogging for BlizzCon 2008 and updating the site with news and announcements from Blizzard and other informative sources.

Ferret - Straining yourself providing well put together threads of information and moderating, keeping this site genuine and clean.

Elfen Lied - Providing exceptional knowledge of Diablo lore and keeping threads together with up-to-date inforamtion.

Silversurfnstud - Helping Mockery and myself with the BlizzCon coverage and maintaining this site greatly.

Sol Invictus - Providing some really important information around the web with great coverage.

Atrumentis & Anakyn - Helping out greatly with moderating the site with our staff team and keeping interest in the forum going.


And if i missed anyone, I am sorry, really busy to at work to notice anyone else. So this goes out to you. Thanks for your hardwork and dedication!

Sincerely,

Thasador

Hey everyone. Hope you guys were able to catch the online blogging by Mockery and all the announcements on the front page by myself. With BlizzCon over and everyone having a smile on their face that attended...overall was a big success for Blizzard. Here is a recap for everything that has happened.




Shown here at 6am PST on the 10th of October, people already awaiting to get inside BlizzCon.




With gigantic posters and art work and banners that filled the hall, all people entering the convention felt amazed as they were now in their own world they all know too well.




Shown above, is a long time Diablo Fanatic Gary Jones, whom repetitively played the Diablo III Demo. "That game is bad ass!", Gary states as he cannot bare the arrival of the game to stores.

Looming over the Diablo III demo area, is the Diablo III sign hanging above so Diablo Fenatics know where to go.





With over 15,000 people attending, halls filled up quick and events held were jam-packed with eager Blizzard Fans.



==Wizard Concept art==



==Demon Concept Art==



Shown here, Diablo panelist explain to all their approach with Diablo III and what they expect to come. Areas of discussion such as interactive 3d environment that is being included into Diablo III as well as discussing the comparison of Diablo I's darkness and Diablo II's gameplay being combined into Diablo III.

With everyone's expectation met and satisfied by the outcome of BlizzCon of 2008. We are ready and set for Blizzard to release more news and announcements for the game we all love in due time. This is a major step for us and the beginning for the arrival once again, the Diablo franchise.

Thasador reporting in from BlizzCon at Anaheim, CA.

I had a chance to break away from all the panelists and events and stopped a few people and asked them about their experience at BlizzCon and more importantly with their expectations and overall rating with Diablo 3.

Chris, an attendee at BlizzCon with his girlfriend both enjoyed BlizzCon and gave it a 10/10 rating. They stated that it was awesome to try out all three games there and to see what Blizzard is aiming their games to. He really enjoyed Diablo 3 greatly. He pointed out that the graphics was phenomenal and that the same general concept of click flury was still implented. He was kinda bummed about the stat assigning, but that quickly turned around for him with the new features such as hacking down light fixtures down on monsters as well as wall rubble crumbling down on enemies.

Tanya, a beloved attendee at BlizzCon also commented that Diablo 3 was "The Shit!" and that she has got in line for the demo all day to play it over and over again. I asked Tanya to rate BlizzCon this year and she gave it a 10/10

I was able to pull aside a few people in the retro gaming area to ask them about BlizzCon this year. Peter stated that everything at BlizzCon was spreaded out evenly and that dedicating one hall for RTS (Starcraft and Warcraft III) one hall for World of Warcraft and another for all the events. He did complain how the schedule was set up with all of the events and how one big event will be broadcasting in the main hall and in the World of Warcraft hall, there would be the semi finals. 9/10 for Peter on this one.

Overall, people were ecstatic of the outcome of BlizzCon. 9.7/10 seems to be the average today...There is still 7 hours left and more to come.

Thasador
Staff Member

Jay Wilson, Game Director of Diablo III announces to attendees at BlizzCon in Anaheim, CA. new changes for the better and some unanswered.

Wilson explains that he wants to have the characters of Diablo III to be epicly powerful compared to Diablo 1 and 2. "Being superpowered and allowing the player to defeat hordes and armies of minions will bring the excitement back into the medeval game." However, many have argued that this will take away the horror/suspense from the game and will loose interest really quickly. Unfortunately the demo is short and I was noticing the uberness of the characters.

Wilson also announced that there will be a hardcore mode for all of you bloodlusting realism players out there as well as 3 difficulty modes like previous in LOD.

Wilson also commented that he wants to "remove the old barriers" when it comes to online play on battle.net. Creating an easier join system with friends and coming up with other ways to free up the restriction in Diablo III compared to all other RPG/Action games.

Wilson explained to Diablo fans that removing health potions away will generate a more realistic experience to the gameplay. Players will not be able to stock up unlimited amount of potions and being "invulnerable" to all monsters/players in battle. With an army of monsters in front of you, it will force you to be more strategic and apply classic hit and run and evading tactics to play.

Random mini-quests will be contributing to Diablo III to help support the randomly generating maps and monsters that we saw in Diablo II. Seeing a cult performing a ritual spell or a caravan in need of assistance at random when you are in the area will put you more intuned to the game as well as re-playabliity.

Diablo III game developers are also marking the overall game economics a high priority as they are developing a system where gold is the main currency and items such as jewels or runes are not. This will defintely keep the game in check and not overflow to a pure mf game.

An attendee attending the convention asked Wilson if loot will still be incorporated as a free for all during online games. Wilson quickly replied no as they have already created a system where all other players in a game with you will not be able to even see the items if they where dropped from a monster that you killed. Now once an item has been picked up and then dropped again will allow other users to see the item.

Wilson's last direction was to only enable a maximum of 4 players on bnet games. This will encourage others to band together in completing quests and prevent servers from reaching over capacity and allow better connection quality...ridding lag.

Day one is almost to a close and there is still a whole day left for more information about Diablo III. I will be uploading several pictures of the event later tonight, so come check it out.

Thasador
Staff Member

Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaime announced that the 3rd annual BlizzCon a success as 15,000+ attendees swarmed the doors 10am PST today. Lines stretch out the front door and around the Anaheim Convention Center, anticipated attendees awaited to gain entry. With the 1st BlizzCon selling out after 3 weeks...This years BlizzCon sold out with in 15 minutes!

Thasador
Staff Member

Thasador here at blizzcon reporting in...

I was able to be one of the first to tryout the new playable demo Diablo III. I was able to get a lot of information so far in regards of skills, gameplay, graphics, dialog, NPC's, and more...

One of the more interesting things about the game play is the Character Stat Assigning. I was able to level up the Wizard and the Witchdocter to a few levels and noticed something strange.

I was able to talk to the lead director of the demo area and was no at liberty to say but was able to tell me that Character Stat assigning will be totally automatic. You will not have any control of which stats get increased. This greatly reduces stragety and builds for the near future when Diablo III gets announced.

Thasador
Staff Member