20 replies to this topic

[ScyberDragon]

PC Gamer

This month's PC Gamer had a nice six page spread about the upcoming Diablo III. Covered in the article were familiar topics like the Real Money Auction House. However, the meat of the story focused on Jay Wilson's and the rest of the development team's inspiration and love for the Diablo franchise. Jay Wilson went into the project with a giant mess of a game to fix. A fine line was then walked to keep the feel of Diablo while innovating the game to new heights. Many options were thrown around, such as the Demon Hunter being able to hop the Barbarian's shoulders and shooting arrows while he walks around. While the options were endless, the team had to choose just enough Diablo feel with a dash of new inspiration. While many complained originally about the newer art direction and more open world, Jay holds strong on his game design and feels that these changes will only improve the iconic franchise that has become the cornerstone for the Hack N' Slash genre. If you would like to read the entire article or check out more of the images from the magazine, you can check out the latest issue of PC Gamer or check out here(special thanks to StickyDan).

StarCow

Many had speculated on the ominous cheat code area found on the Diablo III beta page on Battle.net. Once brought to Blizzard's attention that the mysterious field had been found, rumors and clues were abound trying to figure out what this was for. One of the latest clues to help solve the mystery was given by Bashiok earlier.

Official Blizzard Quote:

“My cow… it’s full of stars!” —New Tristram farmer

After numerous people entered countless options, Robbucke discovered the magical StarCow.

Once the code is entered into the field, you are treated to a fun little video of StarCow flying through the sky with a trailing rainbow behind him; much akin to a certain toaster pastry kitty you may have seen before. Once the video runs, your account will replace the image of the Diablo III beta box with the comical StarCow box. While there is no real reward to this cheat, it is certainly good for a laugh. It also remains unclear on whether or not any other code works in this field for some other cheat. So, if you have tons of time on your hands, feel free to keep plugging in random Blizzard-themed obscure phrases.

3D Capable?

While not exactly new, SleeplessCynic noticed today that NVidia's 3D graphics card listed Diablo III as one of the supported games for the card. While there has been no confirmation by Blizzard about 3D support, there is no doubt that monster torsos flying at your screen would be awesome. Of course, with an isometric view, the technology could only be used for so much but at least the option may remain for those who have both the card and monitor needed for it.

Quote

NVIDIA  3D Vision

• The  3D  Vision Controller (USB) driver is included in this driver  package.  Users are  no longer required to install the 3D Vision CD  driver or a  separate 3D Vision  Controller driver. For more information,  please view  this knowledgebase article.
• Adds  support for viewing 3DVisionLive.com and YouTube 3D with NVIDIA SLI PCs. Please view  this knowledgebase article for more information on 3D Vision Window Mode.
• Window  mode is now the default viewing option for the 3D Vision Photo Viewer.
• Added  the following 3D  Vision game profiles:
  • Aion
  • Diablo  3
  • Dead  Rising 2: Off The Record
  • Defense  of the Ancients (DOTA) 2
  • From  Dust
  • Harry  Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2
  • Last  Remnant Benchmark
  • Men  of War Assault Squad
  • Stock  Car
• Update  the following 3D Vision game profiles:
  • Dirt  3 – updated rating to Excellent

Blues News

First mention in the Blues was Blizzcon coverage from numerous sites. Of course on top and with the best articles was our very own DiabloFans. You can also find more coverage of the even from other sites as well. Plus, for even further coverage of Blizzcon, here at DiabloFans, you can check out our Blizzcon Hub with linls to every article covering the event.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Diablo Fans
The Making of the Black Soulstone Cinematic - http://www.diablofan...lack-soulstone/  
Diablo III Open Q&A - http://www.diablofan...lo-iii-open-qa/  
Diablo III Lore Panel - http://www.diablofan...iii-lore-panel/  
BlizzCon 2011 Diablo III Gameplay & Auction House Panel - http://www.diablofan...on-house-panel/  
Diablo III Themed Costume Contest Entries - http://www.diablofan...ostume-contest/  

For those of you pre-ordering the Collector's Edition but want to play at midnight with everyone else, Bashiok informed us that there are several companies who are able to ship the game out ahead of time to ensure that you receive the game in time to play on release. I have had personal experience with Amazon in this area and had received many games by day of release. Otherwise, you can pre-order at stores like Gamestop that will have midnight releases so you can play at the same time as those who get the digital download.

Official Blizzard Quote:

It would depend on the retailer you're purchasing it from and their shipping procedures.

Blizzard also released a blog a week ago, although getting new light thanks to the recent WoW blog, that follows the day of a Senior Artist for Diablo III. Following the day of Michael Nicholson, you can read just what exactly happens behind those pearly gates at Irvine. From 7:30 in the morning, Michael is working on new UI designs for the Diablo III vendors. You can follow the path from his concepts to team discussions. Getting a chance to meet with Jay Wilson for approval to the amount of programming and art it takes to put it into the game. A simple change like adding a timer on top of the skill with a cool down goes through multiple iterations and stages of approval all while having to be constantly tweaked to perfection. While the blog is interesting enough, it also shows the amount of detail and dedication going into Diablo III. Something as important as the UI's of the game have gone through multiple iterations since the game as revealed and continues to go through changes as we have seen in patch 5 of the beta. All of this translates into the other numerous mechanics and designs used in Diablo III. If you would like to check out the entire entry, you can check out the blog over at Battle.net.

Blizzard has also updated their Blizzcon site with 110 new photos from this year's Blizzcon.

Official Blizzard Quote:

We’ve added 110 new photos to our BlizzCon media gallery. Head to the gallery now to click through some fantastic fan- and professionally-captured shots of all the revelry and fun that BlizzCon 2011 had to offer!

Finally, it appears that another bug has found it's way into the beta. Error 24000 has occurred for numerous people making it so that games cannot be created. Because of this, the beta is currently down and unplayable, giving people the much needed break to play a new game hitting the shelves at midnight.

Official Blizzard Quote:

The Beta is currently down.

Curse Contests

Speaking of this other game, Curse is currently holding a contest to promote payers to create new mods for Skyrim.

Quote

Love the Elder Scrolls series and can’t wait for Skyrim?  We do and we’re looking for mod authors to help us in making creative, useful, and imaginative mods to play with after the game launches!  With the new skyrimforge.com, unleash your creativity with loads of development tools meant to streamline your mod-sharing process.

The  first 35 uploaded Skyrim mods that meet our approval guidelines in each  of the four main categories, will earn some phat loot to line the  pockets of their authors!

Fan Art

Finishing up today, I would like to share with you Calavera666's news Diabolesques comic strip. You can also check out his previous strips in the Fan Art section as well as read an interview with him held by Magistrate.

[CrusaderGT]

That cow is disturbingly cute.

[StickyDan]

[pikke]

CrusaderGT, on 11 November 2011 - 04:55 AM, said:

That cow is disturbingly cute.

You stole my words!  

D3 <-> 3D, you just have to use a mirror  

Thanks ScyberDragon, nice article!  

[Gilgamezh]

I want to eat it! Juicy meat (*^▽^*)

[Soul]

I find it really funny that he said the Beta was down when I was playing it lol

[Eldius]

That comic is freaking hilarious.

[CherubDown]

Holy cow, that was a news attack! Good compilation.

[Robbucke]

Thanks for all diablofans staff by mentioning my name in topic. :D

[Calavera666]

News overload!!

[CherubDown]

Robbucke, on 11 November 2011 - 10:51 AM, said:

Thanks for all diablofans staff by mentioning my name in topic.

How did you figure it out?

[Robbucke]

joining the puzzles and remembering that in starcraft had a code that cited the cow level diablo, then assemble the facts and worked.       (sorry my english) ;)

[CherubDown]

Robbucke, I dedicate this to you:

[Robbucke]

lol thanks Cherubdown

[XBrendan]

Is it me, or aren't the news 2 days ahead of us? :]

[jahblade]

I have noticed for a while now that the date / time stamp on things posted to the site has been off by a few days.

so clearly one of two things is going on here

1) the site is SO ADVANCED they are actually able to post things from the future ....

2) a few of us unlucky souls are living two days behind everyone else and they are already playing D3 and have figured out how to limit what those of us two days behind can have access to ....

either way I am sure it is a conspiracy ... are those black helicopters outside my house??

( hitting the panic button now )

[yadigg]

Anyone able to find a site that can get the Diablo III Collector's Edition to us by day of release?

[Ermitado]

StarCow box looked like Super Mario Bros 3

[Ermitado]

I'm curious as well...  How did you figure it out?

[Benegesserit]

Unless you live in the backroom in Gamestop you're not playing the same time as those getting the digital version. Even though they make sure everyone has paid in full, done trade-ins, etc before midnight, they still take damn near forever to divvy up the copies after 12:01. It's definitely not the same at ALL.