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I'm with Siaynoq on this one, I really enjoyed the long monologues from the NPCs. The voice acting in these was fantastic, it really helped me to immerse myself in the game and the lore.

I greatly prefer monologues to dialogues as well, I think it's just a better way to get lore across and develop character. To make dialogue sound natural, Blizzard will undoubtedly have to simplify what the NPCs say and therefore, we'll hear less information. I think this is a real shame.

I really hope Diablo 3 won't lose the remainder of the series's atmospheric strengths that we experienced in the first two games (albeit in different manners) because of this and other factors. I hope Blizzard can make all their changes work while still maintaining everything that made the first two installments special.

Yep, lots of good information here. It's great to watch how the game is developing and starting to take shape.

I don't really have any quibbles that are jumping out at me right now but I do want to say that I've been worried about Adria's return for quite some time now. I hope they don't remove any of the wonderful mystery about her that was so present in Diablo. She is one of a handful of characters who I don't think should be developed much. Most of her charm came from the fact that she was so enigmatic.

I mean, who was this woman? She seemed to know so much about the inner workings of demon life and arcane history, she didn't seem entirely of this earth. No one had ever been inside her shack in Tristram and who knows what they would have found in there if they had been? There was always I think the suspicion in our heads that she was more than just a regular, run-of-the-mill witch.

As compelling as the question is, I don't really want it answered. I don't want her to be revealed as some secret agent of Heaven or a demon gone good. That for me would spoil her well set-up character. Shakespeare never explained what sort of beings his witches in Macbeth were and I think that Adria should be treated the same way. It's very tempting to expand her story but I think Blizzard should refrain from doing so and keep her aloof.

Anyways, there's my rant on Adria, I don't mean to try to steer the thread in a different direction. All the other info sounds good to me. Looking forward to artisans and all that. I'm confident Blizzard will strike the right balance in boss fights and make them interesting while keeping the "fight" aspect prominent in them. Great post.

I'm amazed at how many of these I disagree with.

10. Agreed.

9. I don't totally dislike these. Obviously they become useless and just extra garbage floating around past normal put they do make for a novel way of playing in Normal. They were a nice little diversion from the more usual way of playing.

8. Well you couldn't expect to have an unlimited number of town portals could you? As others have mentioned though, these are gone so it doesn't really matter anyway.

7. I don't mind these "fetch" quests in other games but I agree with you here, there was something tedious about them in Diablo 2.

6. I liked the Great Marsh. It was essentially just a dungeon above ground that sometimes came between you and the Flayer Jungle. Sometimes it would loop around the Flayer Jungle so when you thought you'd cleared it you'd be right back in it. The satisfaction of finally making it out into Kurast was worth the price of admisson I think.

5. Haha, I disagree. But this is clearly a joke so I won't elaborate.

4. Tough luck I'd say. Not a big fan of the everyone gets their own drops system (I liked the rush of racing to get an item before anyone else) but it's there now so this point need not be worried about anymore.

3. What's wrong with having a dangerous enemy? I wish there had been more enemies as stressful as these guys.

2. I liked these. Just as in Diablo 2, when used in moderation, these shake gameplay up a bit for the better.

1. Agreed.

I totally agree with Calyx's number 6, Kashya was pure aggravation.

One thing that I'd always wished Diablo 2 had implemented end game was some sort of rebuilding process from the ashes that the brothers had left in their wake.

I always found it frustrating when after clearing the Monastery in Act 1, all the Rogues would talk about moving back in and rebuilding their order but never actually did! There could of been loads of endgame content to fiddle away with just in that one part of the game! Bounty hunting out remaining demons running around the monastery, gathering lost supplies from the dungeons, just getting the Rogues all settled in and prospering again. The other acts could have had similar processes as well. Act 4 could have had a full fledged invasion of hell!

Now obviously, this would affect the other side of Diablo 2 where we all love to magic find and level up after we've finished the game. If the monastery was cleared, Kurast rebuilt, and Mount Arreat teaming with travellers again (avoiding the Worldstone shards in the process!) then there would be no monsters to kill (or at least hardly any) and things might get too tame.

But there are ways to work around this. Blizzard could implement a system where the player can choose to go back and forth to the old world where everything's gone to hell and the new one where everything's in the process of re-building. Obviously, this affects immersion a bit but I think that's a worthy sacrifice for some end-game fun.

Patches could update the end-game content with new quests and areas so there's always be something new to do. Or even better, the modding community could add some of their own content and save Blizzard the trouble. Morrowind (and I suppose Oblivion too, though I'm biased against the game) has gained lots of shelf life from its modders, why can't Diablo 3 too?

If Diablo 3 would implement something like this, I'd be a very satisfied customer.

This was a wonderful post, which I did for the record read all the way through.

The tomes were great storytelling methods, they had such an eerie feeling to them. A bit surreal too once you got down to the caves. One wonders what these books were doing down there complete with pedestal and surrounded by demons. Odd place to put a book.

I liked your pointing out that a demon was likely responsible for writing the handful that weren't written by Lazarus. I never really thought of it that way. Don't know who I thought wrote them now that I think about it, I guess I just never thought about it.

This was a really interesting read, I'm thinking the symbol on Diablo's forehead is just a symbol of power, or a symbol of the Three. Good job with the article.

This all sounds good to me. I'm really hoping for lots of opportunities to create more diverse and interesting (maybe even quirkier) builds. Cookie-cutter builds are probably inevitable but Blizzard does seem to be opening the field for more creative but still effective builds to be used.

The skill tree system does have its charm for me but I'm quite excited about the new system.

I agree, it wasn't as funny and convincing as other years' April Fool's jokes but this line's definitely a keeper: "You've got quite a treasure there in that GPS navigation system."

What a sale opener!

I think it makes sense now. It is still a dialogue system though right? I mean, the character now talks as well rather than the old games where the NPC had monolgoues and you never heard the character talk. Blizzard hasn't changed that too, have they?

Nice summary, I wasn't aware of the change to the dialogue cut-scenes. I don't really understand it, does this mean that dialogues don't exist anymore? Will the character still be able to ask the NPCs for gossip and quest information? I'm a bit confused. How are things different from the Diablo 2 system in terms of NPC communication?

I like the Wizard's armor but yeah, someone has to do something with that headpiece. I think he looks more interesting than the female Wizard at least.

This is great news. I'm excited to see what will be included in this version of the patch. Blizzard's really trying to make up for that mess that was the original 1.13 patch. I'm glad they intend to maintain their periodic work on Diablo 2.

Oh, I'm loving this painting. The artist really did an excellent job communicating the evil of this creature. I hope that Blizzard will manage to capture this in the actual game. And yes, it does look like the Diablo 1 vipers and that makes me really happy. It's a bit different though with it's more humanoid torso but it's good that they're not entirely copying their past games. Thanks for the post.

Thanks for the heads-up. Those vipers look great, especially the ones in the second picture. I love what looks like a Diablo 1 influence in them. That's always a good thing in my books.

God, if that happened in Single Player and you couldn't switch between difficulties to correct the problem I would spaz. Good thing this seems to be extremely rare, this is the first time I've ever heard of it happening.