Wednesday, July 22, 2009

We`ll be playing Diablo 3 next month?

Blizzard will be sending some crew and playable game demos to the Gamescom 2009 convention in Cologne, German, from August 20-23. Here’s the official announcement:

We’re pleased to announce that Blizzard Entertainment will be attending gamescom 2009 in Cologne, Germany next month. We look forward to welcoming old friends and new to our booth, which will feature hands-on gameplay with our upcoming games. Our booth is open to the public from Thursday 20 August until Sunday 23 August.


We will be revealing more information on our activities during the show in the coming weeks. You can find out more about what gamescom has to offer, and how to get there, at http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/

Our recruiters will be at the booth ready to answer your questions about recruitment and working at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous open positions in quality assurance, localization, customer support and other departments in our offices in Velizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers. Bring your CV along and talk to us about our employment opportunities. http://eu.blizzard.com/en/jobs/


Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Archangel Imperius - another Boss in Diablo 3?

The Archangel Imperius is a member of the Angiris Council. He is possibly the Archangel of War.

Imperius is described as a majestic Angel wearing long flowing red robes. His characteristic feature is a breastplate carrying the insignia of a blazing upturned sword on it. These descriptions are mentioned in the book The Veiled Prophet from The Sin War series. 

At the end of the Sin War, once Angel Inarius had been defeated by Uldyssian, and Uldyssian in turn sacrificed to save Sanctuary, Archangel Auriel summoned Mendeln, Serenthia and Rathma into the Silver City to witness the judgement imparted by the Angiris Council. 


Archangel Imperius was the first to talk. He declared what Angel Inarius had created had to be destroyed: Sanctuary and its inhabitants. Imperius proposed to the other four members of the Angiris Council that the renegade angel Inarius should be imprisoned for eternity and his nest of demonspawn children: the edyrem and nephalem, destroyed. 


Imperius stretched a gloved fist forward and turned it downwards as a sign of doom for the world of Sanctuary as the first vote in the collective poll of the Angirls Council. In the end, there was only one vote favoring the destruction of Sanctuary, one abstain vote, and three votes against. With bitterness, Archangel Imperius declared Sanctuary's survival.

Rumour 

Look at the blazing angel in this Diablo III concept art shown at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals. I believe, that this is Archangel Imperius because of the sword upon the breastplate. This is surely an archangel and following the Diablo story it must be Imperius. 

Please comment!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Diablo 3 fourth class soon?

With BlizzCon ‘09 coming next month, you don’t have to be a genius to tell that Blizzard will have to make some kind of Diablo 3 announcement.

My count of the rumors regarding the fourth class can be boiled down to two:

Ranged character – the parallel is to the rogue in the Diablo I and the Amazon in Diablo 2
Knight – similar to the Warrior in Diablo and the Paladin in Diablo 2

Believe it or not, there’s speculation that the Knight is out of the question for Diablo 3 and that Blizzard would like to introduce a truly unique character, like … a Vampire!

I think it will be ranged character, could be called Ranger or Hunter. A pet is NOT out of the question, though that could be my WoW Hunter talking!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

User Interface in Diablo 3

The UI is generally the same as its predecessor, besides the graphical upgrades, and will be very familiar to Diablo II players. However, there are some differences. The health and mana globes have moved more toward the center, rather than being all the way in the corners. The stamina bar has dissappeared. The experience bar is now at the bottom of the screen spanning the distance from the health globe to the mana globe. The UI is almost definitely not finalized so although it will probably resemble what we have seen so far, it is certainly due to change. 

Skill Bar


Above the experience bar, where the stamina bar, experience bar, and potion belt used to be, are where the skill and scroll slots are. There are four slots for keyboard activated skills, associated with the 1-4 number keys. They are followed by two scroll slots associated with the 5 and 6 number keys. Lastly on the skill bar are the mouse skills. There is a primary for the left mouse button and a secondary for the right mouse button. The secondary can be quickly switched back and forth with another skill by scrolling the mouse. The mini menu returns from Diablo II, but it does not appear to be collapsible. 

Buffs

Buffs and debuffs are now displayed on the HUD. They are located in the very bottom left hand corner of the screen and are represented with pictures similar to the skills in the skill bar. 

Mini Map

There is now a mini map displayed on the top of the right hand side of the screen. This replaces the translucent map overlay that was present in Diablo II. Your character is represented by a yellow circle. Allies, which include mercenaries and pets, are represented by purple circles. Orange circles indicate NPCs. Text displaying the current location is directly above the map. 

Inventory

The current build of Diablo III drops the old, grid based inventory system in favor of a new bag system. The player has three bags, one each for small, large and quest items that are represented as tabs in the inventory page. Each bag starts out with a limited number of slots but can be upgraded by the player, helping eliminate the need for the player to continually keep going back to town to deposit their items.

Skill Tree

The skill tree now uses illustrative icons similar to World of Warcraft. According to Blizzard, the coloured icons make it easier for the player to differentiate from the greater number of skills available in Diablo III as compared to the first two games.

Mini Combat Log

Things such as the damage you cause when you get a critical hit and when you block an attack with your shield will be displayed with small text that appears above enemies' heads. The text moves upward and quickly fades away. 

Enemy Health

Unlike Diablo II, enemies' health bars now appear directly above enemies heads instead of at the top of the screen. However, for Super Uniques and Bosses, there will be a separate health bar on top of the screen, staying there regardless of the location of the mouse until the enemy is destroyed.

Elixirs

Elixirs have been seen in the game as well, while in Diablo I they would give stat bonuses, there has been no official statement as to what functions they serve. However, it appears that they provide stat bonuses here as well, judging from the names matching with the types of stats in Diablo III. 
Elixir of Willpower I 
Elixir Of Vitality I 



Gems

Gems make a reappearance, and it appears that there is another type of categories of gems than their power levels (chipped, flawed, etc): prefixes such as square and star have been spotted. What they signify in item value and function is currently unknown.

Runes

Like in Diablo II, Diablo III has Runes, but they are completely different from their Diablo II counterparts. They now give bonuses to skills instead of items. 

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Diablo 3 beta map

For those of us impatient enough, a Diablo 3 custom map has been released.

You need Warcraft III in order to play it and the map is still in beta. However, I’m really amazed at the graphics – the world editor is indeed powerful enough to change the game completely. It does look like Diablo 3!

 Download Diablo 3 beta map