DiabloFans

What is the significance of the upside-down and burning crucifixes found within Tristram's cathedral?

Everything works fine after the reinstall. =D I first thought something was wrong with the "Search for Baal" cinematic, but realized my box of install CDs was directly on top of my keyboard, occasionally pressing down and ending it.

Askse, you might also want to reinstall, if it's an issue to you.

I did do a full install (even copied the music MPQ from the expansion-disc so I could play without a CD with patch 1.12a), but I'll reinstall tomorrow and see if that fixes it. I very well might have triple-clicked or something like that by accident, but the cinematics should still be unlocked in the main menu (which they were before this happened).

I can still view the movies correctly via an MPQ-opening program, by the way. The game just (to me) loses a degree of immersion without the cinematics. Since akse has a similar problem, I'm inclined to believe that the new patch might've caused this bug. I don't remember if I upgraded directly by trying to access Battle.net or from an .exe file from FilePlanet or something; I'll make sure to use Battle.net to re-upgrade after the reinstall.

I thought the Collector's Edition was very cool, by the way. I wanted to get it originally, but got the Battle Chest instead since hunting for the expansion and Diablo I seperately seemed like a bit of a hassle.

Welcome! =D Thanks for the welcome!

What can we guess from Diablo III's first teaser-trailer? While others attempt wild speculation involving second-long clips, I choose to point out the obvious:

• Cain now has a beard.
• Diablo now looks much more like a Balrog.
• "Worldstone" is similar to "kidney stone". "Kidney stone" has strong "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" connotations.

Are we going to see a direct rehash of one piece of media's assets in another's come release? What kind of game would include such a thing, you ask? I'll tell you what kind of game!



DIABLO III: LIMBO OF THE LOBOTOMIZED

After (literally) spending all day trying to kill Diablo on my crazily-specced Druid just so I could watch the two cinematics before Act V knowing that I've earned them, I spoke to Tyrael and the red portal opened as it should. I then asked Tyrael to revive my mercenary (who obviously died during the fight with Diablo), and the portal changed position slightly. When I clicked the portal, I went straight to Harrogath; no insane-asylum burning down with rats scurrying about and no Barbarian messenger with a strange accent suddenly asploding from Baal's spell.

Did the reviving of my merc trigger a known bug, or does this mean that something is wrong with my game files? The last three cinematics are now unplayable when I try to view them from the main menu. I'd be more than happy to play the restored cinematics from the menu and pretend they were triggered automatically, but I'm more concerned that there's something wrong with my game's cinematic-triggering mechanism. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Hi, everyone! =D I once checked this site periodically in the vague hope that Diablo III may be announced, and in the image-hype preceding WWI, I became a regular visitor. Seeing some of the interesting discussions following the official announcement, I knew I had to register, and I can now say that I'm very thankful for the privilege of posting here. I purchased the Diablo Battle Chest about a year ago, and currently enjoy making unorthodox build-choices with my Druid character (he's geared for shooting crossbows, casting Hurricane and summoning ravens).

In direct reply to the title post:

The same effect can (to a lesser extent) be seen in Mephisto's prophecy, especially when he talks about "the heavens raining fire".

I think it's apparent from the prophecy situation that either Blizzard is re-interpreting past material to maintain the series's continuity, Mephisto's speech was introduced as a sort of vague "sequel ammo", or the major part of the storyline was mapped out from the beginning.

Quote from "PhotriusPyrelus" »

This.

This is why Heaven wants Sanctuary destroyed. Those in the High Heavens would never taint themselves by drawing on demonic energies, but they know The denizens of the Burning Hells have no such inhibitions about using angelic powers for malignance. This imbalance of power would all but assure the High Heavens' loss in the war against the Burning Hells. Let demons, Lesser Evils, or Prime Evils possess a Nephalem for a long enough period of time and, with no World Stone supressing their hybrid nature, Hell's minions will learn to use both ends of the specturm and dominate the soldiers of Heaven.

Beyond any speculation on Diablo III, I believe this absolutely hits the mark. Since Blizzard clearly hints that the player's character fights angels at some point, I think it's probable that it will be revealed that Diablo is the puppeteer in this scheme, allowing him to transform his army (or at least instruct it) in a way that will allow it to quickly end the Sin War with Heaven's destruction, leading into an expansion or (more probably) a final act. If Diablo literally takes the body of a Nephalem, however, there may be one chance to beat him at his own game.

The only way to completely banish a soul is to imprison it within a Soulstone and smash it on the Hellforge, which may be some sort of pinnacle of reality or spiritual border with the Abyss. One thing commonly overlooked, however, is that Tyrael just threw his sword into the Worldstone after performing some sort of ritual. Perhaps it was just enough to remove Baal's corruption and temporarily put the Worldstone out of service, with Tyrael telling everyone that he was going to destroy it in order to keep Hell or even Heaven from knowing his plans? The hero (or Tyrael) could retrieve Tyrael's sword, find some way to reverse the ritual and reform the Worldstone, and Diablo (trapped in his Nephalem form), as well as his entire army (if they, too, were somehow imbued with Angelic properties) would be severely weakened. Ultimately, Diablo would be slain beneath Tristram (perhaps somewhere else, but I'm saying this for poetic justice) one more time, banished back to Hell along with his army, and assuming all portals to Hell are closed, the Amazon prophecy of humanity being free of the influence of angel and demon may just come true.

to me, diablo in the middle seems like the balrog in Lord of the rings. And can anyone tell me where you've seen diablo3 diablo pic?

Haha, I think Deckard Cain grew a beard so he could do a "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" cutscene with Diablo.

The two pictures of Diablo in Diablo III so far that we've seen are from the cinematic trailer here and the splash page currently here, which is also used in the upper-left portion of the top banner of this site.

As you can see below, Diablo's horns and general features are different depending on whom (if anyone) he's taken the body of.

On a side note, I'm glad Blizzard is returning to some of its old funky camera angles with the cutscenes. Diablo II was epic at many points, but it lacked the pure roller-coaster factor that Diablo's cutscenes had with the fast, spinning and surreal zoom-outs.

As stated above, I think the Barbarian in Diablo III may indeed be one of the heroes that killed the Evils. The classes which don't appear as player characters will probably be bosses, while the characters that return may struggle with their own age and/or corruption in their class quest(s).

In fact, I can definitely imagine a Witch Doctor fighting a corrupted Necromancer; the Necromancer in the first place was susceptible to corruption, and the Witch Doctor would be forced to reconsider his/her own path after seeing the fate (at his/her hands) of one similar, adding character depth.

As cool as the concept of Belial and Azmodan is, I feel that making a whole game (in a series titled "Diablo") starring them would be akin to making an "Indiana Jones" movie where Indiana died of prostate cancer ten years before and his son continues his work, and the skull we see looks a little too Diablo-like to be anyone else (the known Evils seem to be pretty diverse in appearance). I think it's likely that Diablo intended for the Soulstones to be destroyed (he hated the things; both he and Mephisto tried to get their servants to shatter them). The destruction of the Worldstone may have also destroyed the barrier between the mortal world and the abyss which contains the souls of the Prime Evils, or something occurring somewhere along the events of Diablo III may apply a similar effect.
Recall that, at the end of the first Diablo, Diablo's body turned into a big skeleton before collapsing into Prince Albrecht's body once his soulstone was removed. In Diablo II, we see a blue matter encompassing Diablo's body enter the soulstone, turning his skin black (which didn't happen in Diablo I, probably because Diablo hadn't fully manifested in the boy's body without the reunion of the Three), but we don't see the soulstone removed, nor the body collapse into a skeleton and then the body of the Wanderer. Perhaps the hero removes the soulstone, then hurries off to the Hellforge, not noticing that some surviving demons preserve the skeleton, and try to take control of it? Maybe what we're seeing is the skeleton of the Lord of Terror, partially restored and being controlled by one or more of the Lesser Evils?
Coincidentally, I'm not sure if this has been thought about, but, relating to the idea of Diablo planning all these events and the recent "and the Heavens..." teasers, perhaps Mephisto's prophecy represents the events of the various games?
"And the Evil that was once vanquished shall rise anew!" (In the opening cinematic of Diablo I, the evil that the Horadrim thought locked away permanently (Diablo) awakened.)
"Wrapped in the guise of man shall he walk amongst the innocent, and terror shall consume they that dwell upon the earth!" (In Diablo II, Diablo traveled in the body of a man, walking among the unknowing populace, and terrible creatures manifested in his wake.)
"The sky shall rain fire, and the seas will become as blood!" (The skies rain fire at the beginning of Diablo III, culminating in a comet-crash where Diablo once slept. The seas becoming as blood could refer to a development later in the game.)
"The righteous shall fall before the wicked, and all creation shall tremble before the burning standards of Hell!" (Perhaps Diablo IV, a big expansion, or even the final act/ending of Diablo III? It's interesting to note that "all creation" was altered to "the heavens" in the teaser statement.)