A Decade of Waiting...
Announced way back in June of 2008, Blizzard Entertainment will soon release the much anticipated Diablo III, over a decade after the last Diablo game product. Development for Diablo III started in 2001, by Blizzard North, but greatly differs from the original design back then. They have departed from the Havok Physics Engine, and using their own custom in-house physics will allow for in-game damage effects in destructible environments. A full 3D environment will see enemies crawling up walls, and other such utilization of the world around. Sanctuary is the name of the fantasy world of Diablo, and has aged twenty years since the end of the last game, Diablo II. The world's geography has been changed by events in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Two large continents separate the seas, dotted with tiny islands to the Northwest.
Players will begin to explore Sanctuary starting May 15th, 2012, but only in a singleplayer mode at first. In an effort to release the game and avoid further launch delays, Blizzard has pulled integration of their Player versus Player arenas. A future patch will include PvP at a later date, and players will be able to choose existing characters they have used in cooperative and single player games. They will have all the skills and gear they have earned, and can participate in unranked and ranked games that unlock rewards and titles, as well as multiplayer achievements. The public beta testing is currently underway, and the impressions of the players are generally good. Five character classes include a Wizard, a Witch Doctor, a Monk, a Demon Hunter, and of course, a Barbarian. Players have noted right away that the button mashing tactics of the past have been replaced with a clear need to use the in-game skills to prevail. Even gold is picked up automatically - gone are the days of playing Diablo with a "turbo" button!
Announced way back in June of 2008, Blizzard Entertainment will soon release the much anticipated Diablo III, over a decade after the last Diablo game product. Development for Diablo III started in 2001, by Blizzard North, but greatly differs from the original design back then. They have departed from the Havok Physics Engine, and using their own custom in-house physics will allow for in-game damage effects in destructible environments. A full 3D environment will see enemies crawling up walls, and other such utilization of the world around. Sanctuary is the name of the fantasy world of Diablo, and has aged twenty years since the end of the last game, Diablo II. The world's geography has been changed by events in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Two large continents separate the seas, dotted with tiny islands to the Northwest.
Players will begin to explore Sanctuary starting May 15th, 2012, but only in a singleplayer mode at first. In an effort to release the game and avoid further launch delays, Blizzard has pulled integration of their Player versus Player arenas. A future patch will include PvP at a later date, and players will be able to choose existing characters they have used in cooperative and single player games. They will have all the skills and gear they have earned, and can participate in unranked and ranked games that unlock rewards and titles, as well as multiplayer achievements. The public beta testing is currently underway, and the impressions of the players are generally good. Five character classes include a Wizard, a Witch Doctor, a Monk, a Demon Hunter, and of course, a Barbarian. Players have noted right away that the button mashing tactics of the past have been replaced with a clear need to use the in-game skills to prevail. Even gold is picked up automatically - gone are the days of playing Diablo with a "turbo" button!
The game will launch with 300,000 Collector's Edition units for a price of $99.99 and will include a USB key holding Diablo II and it's expansion, a book with concept art, a soundtrack CD, and even a documentary DVD. The standard edition will cost $59.99, but those who took advantage of the "annual pass" for World of Warcraft promotion by Blizzard will receive Diablo 3 free as a digital download once it is released. Not a bad incentive for keeping an active WoW account for one full year. It is worth noting that a constant internet connection to Blizzard's Battle.net service will be required even for single player gameplay.
This is sure to be an amazing game, and Blizzard is proud of it's achievement. Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment had this to say:
"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch.
We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."
This is sure to be an amazing game, and Blizzard is proud of it's achievement. Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment had this to say:
"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch.
We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."
by Aaron Semler, Senior Editor VETERANS-GAMING
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