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Diablo 3 Preview

Zuggy — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:42:05 +0000

So, if you hadn’t already heard, Diablo 3 is in the works, and by the looks of the most recent screenshots and videos things are moving pretty quickly. While we already known a great deal about the game, the biggest question…and most opened ended is still out there, what type of game is diablo 3 going to be like?

For starters, Diablo 3 is NOT an MMO. The game is being developed very similar in play style to the original Diablo 2. While it will have much more polishing, details, and complexity in character development, the simplicity of the game will still allow any type of player (casual or hardcore to enjoy it).

Diablo 3 will not have a monthly free. With the announcement of the game, Blizzard also revealed that the game will be on Blizzard’s legendary network, battle.net. This means the game will be entirely free to play, simply plug and play till your heart’s content.

And now, a few rapid fire comments on what we already know.

There will be 5 Diablo 3 Character Classes, 2 of which have already been announced, Witch Doctor and Barbarian.
Diabo 3 will retain it’s old random environments and map generation.
Players will be able to choose their classes gender, unlike Diablo 2 which forced a gender upon a class.
Old friends and foes alike will make an appearance in the game, Deckard Cain has already been announced.
While the new world is called “Sanctuary”, players will still venture back to old world locations like Tristam.
The game is structured in such a way that you could level up solo, or with a group of friends.

and the big one…when will diablo 3 be released?

Officially, Blizzard is saying nothing, but in my personal opinion (and the backing of multiple insider sources), the game should release sometime between Q2 and Q3 of 2009.

Diablo 3 Trailer

Zuggy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:15:24 +0000

Even though we’ve nearly reached the week point since Diablo 3 was officially announced I can still hardly believe it. From all of the videos and screenshots I’ve seen the game looks more a hell of a lot more polished than any other Blizzard upcoming release.

Either way, if you haven’t seen the official Diablo 3 cinematic trailer make sure you check it out. If this doesn’t pump you up then I don’t know what else will. Also, check out the newest Diablo 3 game play videos here.

Diablo 3 Character Video – Barbarian
Diablo 3 Character Video – Witch Doctor

Diablo 3 Screenshots Gallery

Zuggy — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:41:52 +0000

After the recent announcement of Diablo 3, Blizzard has released loads of great information. Including awesome videos, class information breakdowns…and most importantly game play screenshots! This is the first batch of high resolution screen shots released, but I expect many more, both official and un-official shots to be pouring out as the game’s development progresses even more.

Check out these 29 awesome shots from closed alpha testing.

Diablo 3 Release Date

Zuggy — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:18:20 +0000

While no official release date has been announced yet for Diablo 3, there has been much speculation to a potential “ball park” figure on the launch date for the much anticipated title. Needless to say, it’s going to be a big year with as many releases as blizzard has planned for the near future.

A recent leak from Blizzard’s parent company, Vivendi revealed that the newest World of Warcraft expansion is due sometime in the fall of 2008. In addition, Starcraft II is also due out around Christmas.

So what does this tell us? Well, if anything it reveals a pattern of release timing. After the first announcement of each of these respective games their release dates were scheduled between 8 and 12 months later. I believe this same scenario should hold true for Diabo III.

This would put the game’s release date between March and July of 2009. A release date during this time fame allows Blizzard’s other title releases to soak up all the economic benefit to further bolster the companies revenues for the 2008 fiscal year. With no current releases or expansions scheduled for the 2009 year, it would be a pretty bleak stock outlook for the company to not release a game before Q2, or at the very latest Q3 of 2009.

Of course, all of this is just purely speculation, but with any luck we’ll here of a leaked release date in the coming weeks and months as the rapid development of this much anticipated title continues.