[nzkobc]

MainLurker said:

note: oblivion which got top score only cause of the company and the huge hype)

?????????!!!!!!!!

Speak for yourself. Oblivion and Morrowind are my 2nd and 3rd Favorite RPG's of all time.

[psyfect]

I like the game. I do. I want it released A.S.A.P. I have a question for all of you though. When looking at this comparison, what story does each picture tell? Please, be honest with yourselves. Forget about the presence of color or the absence of it. What stories do the pictures tell comparatively?

The first picture, to me (and remember, my first impression of the game was; "Awesome!") seems to tell a story of a casual, happy stroll during a nice day and "Oh look! There's some weird looking goat standing upright with a stick...allow me to smash it for some reason!"

The second picture? Well that drips with realism and fear. Like I'm pressing onward when I shouldn't be, that I'm unsure of each step I take. A demonic creature approaches; I fight and struggle to stay alive with each impacting strike of my weapon. "Where am I headed? Not sure, but it's going to be a long journey, and I'll be leaving a path of demons in my wake."

That's my take on the story each picture seems to tell and I had no idea before I saw these edited pictures that there could even be an alternative. However, I'm not going to let some manipulated image deter me from appreciation of Blizzards hard work. I am interested in the lore of the game, but I've always placed importance on the game play, as well as the graphics, and once more; the graphics are more than acceptable in my opinion.

[Kenzai]

I agree with all thats written there.

Firstly, make the monsters look more scary and violent, make the equipment look more realistic (mainly shoulders and the effects on the weapons) and make the dungeons more gory, bloody and scary.
Maybe decrease brightness a bit outdoors. And i hope the environment will darken in other areas. (Later inthe game)

[Rumina]

Seriously, I really think we need to see more before making this judgement. After watching the gameplay movie I felt too that the art direction has forsaken the series a bit in favor of a Warcraft feel. But honestly we've seen one style of dungeon and one small overland area. They said they are really trying to use this for mood and to set a contrast, they've redone the art direction 3 times now they've said in an interview and they really think they have something here. I'm giving Blizzard a chance that they know what they're doing.

While regardless I do wish that the models and textures were sharper and more well rounded (I know they are aiming for compatibility but that's a bit rediculous) I'm giving they're art/lighting direction a chance. If it starts to appear that all these outdoor areas are happy and cheery with no hint of diablo in there then I may change my mind.

Thinking back though.... when looking at the Diablo exteriors we've seen a bland field of rolling plains in Act 1 with a musical score that accompanied it perfectly which I think a lot of the mood derived from, a brightly lit desert (except at night time) that didn't really have any creepy atmosphere whatsoever except for occasionally at night in Act 2, a deep thick jungle in Act 3 which I think has most of these qualities you guys feel D3 exteriors are missing, Act 4 was... well... hell and you have not even the vaguest of comparisons yet, and Act 5 which had exteriors that were mostly action and had not much of any mood.

I honestly think a lot of this mood you are drawing from is greatly in part from the music. Try picturing Diablo 2 at higher resolutions with no music, in my mind I'm picturing crap. Also I don't really like those pictures of "what it should look like". No I most definitely do not want Warcraft style graphics. But at the same time I don't want Diablo 2 with higher resolution and physics. That would look like crap. I want to see where they go with this. If they've retried and put as much consideration into as they say they have then I'm going to wait and see if these areas really do contrast other parts of the game.

I think what Blizzard needs to do is be very careful about what they show us next.

[owningypsie]

I like this person's persuasiveness while he maintains dignity and respect. Good find indeed. He is very persuasive, and I tend to agree with his opinions. However, I believe that he did himself a disservice by attaching the photoshopped images. They are other people's renditions of the game, and don't reflect the Diablo feel either, IMO.

[hoboman27]

good stuff agree with you
diablo3 need to top all the other hack and slash rpgs, and to stand out.

[SithDiablo]

Good post, BUT again it's NOT about color! It's about Atmosphere/Mood, which is more appropirate word to use here than Color.

[sproket343]

I couldn't say it any better myself. Great writeup.

[streamline]

The devs main argument is that they try to convey mood through colors - but isn't gloomy and gothic mood conveyed through darker and gritier colors. Is gothic mood conveyed by rainbows and arcaedic special effects?



Warcraft in Sanctuary - hope it sells!

[Tiresias]

This post is about the "Diablo 3 Lore and Environment Art Panel" with Leonard Boyarsky (Lead World Designer, Diablo III) and Brian Morrisroe (Art Director, Diablo III). A video of the panel can be found at:

http://www.gamespot....ment-art-panel-

When watching the video, I noticed some major inconsistencies and flaws in the argumentation. Overall I had the impression that Mr. Boyarsky and especially Mr. Morrisroe were trying hard to find lame excuses for and play down the - in my humble opinion - extreme deviation in art style of Diablo 3 in comparison to Diablo 1 and Diablo 2.

Here is a part of the video in form of a transcript I made myself. Watch the video if you think I altered what they said.

Here is the transcript. It is not complete, please refer to the video if you want to hear it all. The passages I'm going to address later are in bold:

BRIAN MORRISROE (ART DIRECTOR, DIABLO III) speaking:

"[...] for our first approach for this project, when we first got started, the most important thing for us was to understand where we were as a development team, where we came from and what the expectations of this franchise were from our player base."

"We understand, you know, we're looking back at Diablo 1 and 2 - the universe was very dark, you know. Leonard [Boyarsky, see above] was talking about the story, and this is a universe that was created by demons and angels basically. And it is a common occurrence to see those things on a daily basis.

And so there is a certain level of grid and realism we want to bring to the game, but at the same time its important to take the player in a fantasy realm. That's what we're really all about here, exploring the idea of giving you something that you've never seen before.

And if we simply took photographs and applied them to a bunch of polygons, thats really not us doing our job, you know. So we really wanted to explore and push this idea of bringing a unique, different look to the Diablo 3 universe, but being very careful not to get too cartoony so as to deviate too far from what we had established with the previous games."

Well so far for the transcript. Here are the passages I want to address and my answers to them:


... understand where we were as a development team, where we came from and what the expectations of this franchise were...

... the universe was very dark ...

Either you failed to understand where you came from, or you don't care. I am in the lucky position that I don't have to explain what I mean as there is an excellent treatis on this that can be found here:

http://www.diablofan...ead.php?t=11183

(If the link does not work, it can be found in a thread called "Art Direction - A constructive, polite, well made text about it")


... universe that was created by demons and angels basically ...

The Diablo III universe does no longer feel like being created by angels and demons, but like being created by blizzard. Too bad.


... bringing a unique, different look to the Diablo 3 universe ...

... giving you something that you've never seen before ...

Aha. Sorry for being polemic here, but maybe you mean: Something that you have never seen bevore in either Diablo 1 or 2 and unique in a WoW kind of direction. Seriously - if you want Diablo III to be unique the why the closeness to WoW?


... deviate too far from what we had established with the previous games ...

I hate to tell you, but - you did. Big time.


Last but not least, the most crucial and most irritatingly unlogical statement:

... universe was very dark ...

... universe that was created by demons and angels basically ...

... realism we want to bring to the game, but at the same time its important to take the player in a fantasy realm ...

Why does a fantasy realm neet to look unrealistic? A fantasy realm defines itself by its lore, architecture, creatures and so on. A fantasy realm is obviously fictitious but not necesarrily unrealistic ... Just look at the LotR movies. They obviously happen in fantasy realms - very real looking fantasy realms indeed.

And - if the universe is so dark - shouldn't be the fantasy realm be dark, too?

I beleive, the aim here was to create a "fantasy realm" that feels appealing and familiar to the WoW community.

All in all, I would have hoped for a little bit more frankness on the part of Blizzard.

They could have just said: "Well - we think the Diablo universe you know from Diablo 1 and 2 is too dark to be appealing to the masses. We rather feel like creating a fantasy realm that feels familiar to our precious WoW community." Instead of babbling about how they want to stay true to the franchise. Those are very clever people at Blizzard. They are fully aware of how much they are deviating from the franchise.

[amitbl]

i really relate to the original post on this thread. very articulate and spot on the problems many of us felt were on this diablo III gameplay cinematic, but just couldn't put them in words.
i couldn't convey these feeling better myself.

that's the kind of post i'd really like to see an official blizzard response to. and better sooner than later.

as someone here said before me - either way, blizzard should really be carefull about their pick on what to show us next regarding this very anticipated game.

[dlance]

Quote

They could have just said: "Well - we think the Diablo universe you know from Diablo 1 and 2 is too dark to be appealing to the masses. We rather feel like creating a fantasy realm that feels familiar to our precious WoW community." Instead of babbling about how they want to stay true to the franchise. Those are very clever people at Blizzard. They are fully aware of how much they are deviating from and fucking with the franchise.

That's just the worst case scenario. I have strong hopes Blizzard isn't just catering to the Warcraft fans or trying to make it a "safe" game for kids.

IMO, Blizzard wouldn't make such a sellout move and be just 'another company amongst others', they know the only thing making their Diablo franchise so popular and commercially succesful is it's uniqueness.