Ready the Speculation Wheel: Diablo III Monsters and that Elusive MMO

Never formally announced or updated in the monster list shown here (last updated with the Fallen, see Diablo III Bestiary Update- Return of the Fallen!), it would appear that the latest official Diablo III site update has unveiled a cast of images, some of which have possibly revieled returning monster types, such as the below which bears a striking resemblance to the Claw Vipers of Diablo II (and somewhat to those of Diablo I):

And, perhaps, the ponderous undead wielding the giant swords on the bottom-right hand corner of the image may be related to the Reanimated Horde of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Notice how similarly they handle their long swords. They also lack the shields that the previously-announced undead monster type wields (see here).

Furthermore, Blizzard continues its massive employment spree, shooting off job opportunities in a multitude of fields for their company abroad (see here). Some of them, however, have a nice bit tagged on them that might spike your memory to an older subject:

Official Blizzard Quote:

Software Engineer, Audio
United States-CA-Irvine
Next-Gen MMO
Apply

Lead 3D Environment Artist
United States-CA-Irvine
Next-Gen MMO
Apply

Lead 3D Character Artist
United States-CA-Irvine
Next-Gen MMO
Apply

3D Environment Artist
United States-CA-Irvine
Next-Gen MMO
Apply

3D Character Artist
United States-CA-Irvine
Next-Gen MMO
Apply

Next-Gen MMO? Could this be related to the unannounced MMO that has been so far as elusive as tangible news on Diablo II patch 1.13 (see New Blizzard Trademark and The Unnannounced MMO for old speculation) or is this simply over-compensating term for working on the up-coming World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion?

Let the speculation begin!

Thanks to naksucow and emilemil1 for spotting the respective issues

Comments

naksucow
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Posted Sep 30, 2009
Yay! my first shout out on the front page!

Anyway, I wanted to bring over another picture from a previous thread on the new monster topic.

Quote from "Dauroth" »
Those blue dudes actually remind me of Baal! They have four legs and feature some strange appendages on their heads!

And say that I agree with Dauroth here that they do look Baal'ish.

Another weird looking guy is the green monster on the right in this picture.

Could it be one of the green things that Lt Venom was talking about in the Monk introduction video?

As for the new MMO, I have no idea if the job openings are for it. But it would make sense if they are just starting on it.

Also, there is a new wasp monster in this pic. I believe there has been an artwork picture of this monster for some time, but this is the first time it has shown up in a screen shot.

I really like the colors of the new screen shots. If you look at them in contrast to some of the first screen shots they look a lot better imo.

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sanctus
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Posted Sep 30, 2009
Next-gen MMO is in fact their unannounced next-gen MMO. For WoW job postings, they simply have the tag World of Warcraft. Cataclysm is anything but a next-gen mmo. It's still Warcraft, it's still very much last generation.

There's another posting I saw on there that raised an eyebrow or six.

It's not labeled as next-gen mmo, or WoW, or Starcraft, or D3.

3D Production Artist

United States-CA-Irvine

Unannounced Game Title

Apply

Oh the implications are staggering! Yet another game in development over at Blizzard! What could it be! Warcraft 4? Blackthorne 2? Rock N Roll Racing: The Revival!!?? Only Blizzard knows.

Production artist would imply that this particular game is still very early in development: conceptual stage early.

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Vnom
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Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rock N Roll Racing: The Revival

yes yes yes yes.

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LordRazZ
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Posted Oct 1, 2009
Rock and Roll Racing 2? Oh...dare I even dream

The artwork looks amazing now..not exact bright and cheery like was feared.

That looks...Diablo-ish...very diablo-ish

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Musica
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Posted Oct 2, 2009
Always nice to see some new monsters, thanks for the update. It looks like Blizzard's re-hashing Baal's LOD model for those spirit demons. I'm surprised, I thought Baal looked kind of goofy in Diablo 2.

But oh, those textures, they really do break my heart. I only hope they'll be much more detailed by the game's release.

I sort of agree with Lord RazZ's statement that the game's starting to look more Diabloish but I think I'd say it's looking more Diablo 2ish than anything. There's still something flashy and inartistic about it to my eyes and it still doesn't seem to be dark enough to fit my idea of what the "Diablo feel" is.

But back to the positive, I'm glad to see that Blizzard might be bringing the Reanimated Horde back. They were fun.

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