DiabloFans

The first jobs listed were over two years ago at this point, but the one that was most telling was for a Production Director last June which included "massive multiplayer game development experience."

Of course that doesn't have to mean it's an MMO, but... The iron would be mighty hot right now. The once-bloated western MMO market has become very hungry and has nothing on the horizon.

Not that I'm really stoked about the idea. Cramming tons of players into a horror environment really dilutes it.

I really don't want to be that guy, but I have to say that the art seems more like concept art for the return of the Burning Legion in WarCraft IV.

Diablo and WarCraft have always had their own art motifs, and Diablo III is filled with the latter because, of course, its artists are Blizzard Irvine folks rather than Blizzard North folks. Mainly it's the shoulders, internal luminescence, and general form and stance of the monsters, but also so much more than that. Shows through in-game in the beta, too.

Especially when we have very good reason to think the meteor isn't a meteor.

This is a good compiled example of what I mean about Diablo III being Diablo-via-WarCraft.

Not necessarily a bad thing, I just think it's interesting that there's no longer really a Diablo style, a WarCraft style, and a StarCraft style, but just a Blizzard style.

My dates also feature premature releases.

Quote from Exú »

SKIDROW alredy do a crack to client? Like in SC2?

I doubt it. The SC2 beta wasn't cracked so much as it was emulated, anyway. We had to build our own AI scripts to make a sort of skirmish mode mockup. It's not like D3 has that kind of gameplay.

I doubt it. The SC2 beta wasn't cracked so much as it was emulated, anyway. We had to build our own AI scripts to make a sort of skirmish mode mockup. It's not like D3 has that kind of gameplay.

A friends & family beta with no NDA is really weird. I feel like I've slipped into an alternate universe Blizzard doesn't have lawyers.

I had been willing to put money down that character creation would include some skin/hair variations, because it would be easy with Blizzard's ridiculous resources and the incredibly lightweight graphics and why not. Glad that I didn't.

Xiansai has been around ever since the D2 Assassin. I don't see why this is coming up now.

Quote from FingolfinGR

"white" is usually called "caucasian". just saying

Quite oddly. Calling your average white Briton ‘Caucasian’ is like calling a Mexican ‘Canadian’ because their ancestors passed through Canada to reach Mexico.

I guess the misnomer can't be helped at this point, though. The distinctions are pretty useless, anyway.

Quote from Macros

The female wizard is definately Asian, yes. Chinese I think?

Absolutely. If, for some reason, the name Xiansai isn't enough to give it away as Chinese-inspired, the features of both the male and female wizards are more common in China than anywhere else. Do some Google image searches with the face filter using terms like ‘Chinese male model’ and ‘Chinese female model’ to meet our wizards.

I can understand why some people think otherwise, though. As with Europe, there is a multitude of distinct ethnicities amongst the nations of what we refer to as Asia, and it would be unusual for any one person to be familiar with the features of them all.

Using an easy European example, in England alone you've got at least 13 morphologically distinct (though slowly blurred, so to speak, over the last thousand years or twelve) groups derived from branches caused by events in the Paleolithic, and even that is painting with a very broad brush. You can drill down a lot more than this if you're really meticulous. Or a geneticist. Asia's no different. Tibetan facial morphology is very different from Taiwanese facial morphology....

Damn it. Evidently, I haven't been paying as much attention as I thought, because I was under the impression that gems were gone. I'm happy to be mistaken, of course.

Quote from Frostbite5

Maybe the 'stone - silver -gold' refers to the actual runic symbol? So you can have a gold rune set in a piece of gold?

If anything, it's the five colors that refer to the runes themselves.

Love it.

Though the title 'Character Customization' reminds me that I'm surprised we haven't heard anything about basic appearance customization over the years—just a couple of simple things on the model like hair color, hair style, and skin tone. It's something I've always assumed a third Diablo game would feature, especially since it would be so much cheaper to implement into a minimal-detail, isometric approach like this than a very high-detail ground-level game like other modern RPGs.

Also, not to be a dick, but:

Going into the spirit world, the Witch Doctor becomes corporal and can move through enemies.

Incorporeal, yes?

Quote from imbacraft

At least the developers gave this class the Gothic touch it needs. But... we still need MEDIEVAL or PSEUDO-MEDIEVAL REALISTIC classes! NO high tech and/or high fantasy warcraft inspired crap with automated (!) dual wielded crossbows and high heels....


/Nerdrage off. Game will still be good. But annoyances still are annoyances. Life goes on.

I was half-expecting a knight-esque class that would play like something between the Paladin and the Rogue, with the aesthetic of the Warrior, so I don't disagree with you.

But I'm also not really bothered by the crossbows. I would be, except that we've already seen far more ridiculous in the form of the Amazon's automatic spread-fire longbows.

Quote from Kaio

Now that all classes are revealed.. I can finally sleep at night

No kidding! Even if this one isn't my favorite, having one unknown class was disproportionately bothersome.

Quote from Eldius

Best art & lore would be the Iris (Fallen Necromancer). Best mechanics, Xiansai Wraith.

Yes, thus were my votes.

Quote from Gulliver

Why does Iris have to be naked? I can see why she failed at necromancy...

Because masses of fused demonic zombies probably don't care to dress their 'soul food,' I imagine. She's only a part of that abomination so it can use her mana, remember.