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Blizzard Announces Diablo 3

stpk4 writes "After a week-long tease by Blizzard, Diablo 3 has just been announced in Paris. The splash screen has been updated at their homepage and The Escapist has the first write-up." While there aren't many details available yet, it is known that Deckard Cain returns to help our heroes yet again.

76 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Not only splash screen by zolf13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... much more here

    1. Re:Not only splash screen by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Funny

      All I see is fifty bazillion unnecessary Flash widgets, with a smidgen of text way at the bottom. They even apparently require Flash just to show a fancy capital "T".

      Maybe that's the point. In Diablo III, you, the hapless adventurer, are given the Nerd's Gaming Rig of Total Righteousness (Unique Item), and must venture through the Gates of Hell to destroy Diablo's armies of pointless Flash widgets.

      In the expansion, you essentially do the same thing, except now they're all Silverlight widgets, and you face off against a chair-throwing Steve Ballmer at the end.

    2. Re:Not only splash screen by TomHandy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can't imagine any possible reason why you wouldn't be able to play it on your MacBook Pro (even if it's a 1st gen one with the crippled X1600 GPU, it should still be able to handle it just fine.... Blizzard isn't exactly Crytek when it comes to system requirements).

    3. Re:Not only splash screen by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, but Blizzard first put up the splash screen and then apparently forgot to upload the rest of the site for an hour or so. You got the splash screen followed by a 404.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    4. Re:Not only splash screen by IHateEverybody · · Score: 2, Funny

      All I see is fifty bazillion unnecessary Flash widgets, with a smidgen of text way at the bottom. They even apparently require Flash just to show a fancy capital "T".


      At least you got to see the bazillion unnecessary Flash widgets. The page appears to be slashdotted.

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    5. Re:Not only splash screen by Bohabo · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, I can't do better. But I'm not taking people's money so that I can not do better. Quod erat demonstrandum.

  2. Other forms of payment by MooseMuffin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps Blizzard and I can simplify our relationship and I can just hand them my soul. They seem to have a pretty good handle on it as it is.

    1. Re:Other forms of payment by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Perhaps Blizzard and I can simplify our relationship and I can just hand them my soul. They seem to have a pretty good handle on it as it is.

      I'd go for that when there will be a Linux port of the game. Here's the address to write to and to let them know that there is demand:
      http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml

      Just think, if half of all /.ers wrote to them expressing interest in a Linux port, how much pressure that would be to deliver. Even a port compiled against Wine 1.0 would be great. Write to them and let them know that.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:Other forms of payment by MooseMuffin · · Score: 4, Informative

      I run WoW under wine on ubuntu. Works perfectly, and even plays nice with the compiz fusion desktop effects. I can run WoW on one desktop, and then spin the cube to another to answer IMs or whatever.

    3. Re:Other forms of payment by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I run WoW under wine on ubuntu. Works perfectly, and even plays nice with the compiz fusion desktop effects. I can run WoW on one desktop, and then spin the cube to another to answer IMs or whatever.

      But it might not work in the next release. If we don't write to the game developers and let them know that we want to use their products on linux - even if there currently is a workaround such as wine - then we will never have games written for the OS. And not having games is what keeps many people on Windows. A vicious cycle, and we need to break it.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    4. Re:Other forms of payment by MMC+Monster · · Score: 2, Funny

      I guess that I'm in that "half of al /.ers" who never played any of the diablo games. *shrug*

      Games are nice, but I can't believe half of all /.ers can agree any anything (besides reading /., apparently).

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    5. Re:Other forms of payment by jlarocco · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well shit, in that case I can just run Windows inside Qemu or VMWare and run all my apps that way. Why bother making any Linux software at all?

      Using wine is a hack. It only works sometimes, in some cases, and chances are good that upgrading it will break things. It's not an excuse for not releasing a Linux version. If I wanted Windows, I would just go buy it.

    6. Re:Other forms of payment by Fancia · · Score: 2

      Blizzard always releases every one of their games for Mac on the same day as the Windows versions; that goes back to long before Cedega existed. A Mac version of Diablo 3 doesn't mean anything to a potential Linux version, unfortunately.

      --

      Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
    7. Re:Other forms of payment by Jellybob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While not the perfect solution, Wine does get the job done, and can allow people to play games that they wouldn't otherwise be able to.

      It only works sometimes, in some cases, and chances are good that upgrading it will break things.


      Not if the developers have been working with the aim of not breaking under Wine. I think the OP was saying to distribute a known good version of Wine with the game, and run it that way, which would mean that there aren't any issue.

      This has worked quite well to release Windows games for Mac OS, where they are built against a DirectX compatiability library, allowing companies to release games for both platforms at the same time.

    8. Re:Other forms of payment by dotancohen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not if the developers have been working with the aim of not breaking under Wine.

      Exactly, but they aren't going to do that if we don't ask. Write to them and let them know that they need to target Wine / Linux as well as whatever versions of Windows they write for.

      Better yet, as another poster mentioned, wait a few weeks before writing to them. That way, we won't flood them all at once and then die down again.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    9. Re:Other forms of payment by crashfrog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      then we will never have games written for the OS.

      Maybe one of the reasons you'll never have games written for the OS is that you can't count on anything to work from one release to the next (like your example of games under WINE.)

      --
      I never have frustrations, the reason is, to wit:
      If at first I don't succeed, I quit!
    10. Re:Other forms of payment by Logiksan · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is a very valid point. 'Linux' is little more than a kernel. There's a half dozen or so interfaces built on top of that, with a few different types of environments available. It's not a lack of demand that's keeping commercial games from being released on Linux OSes, it's the fact that it has to conform to a number of different platforms within the Linux umbrella. With the rising costs of game development, nobody wants to bother going through the trouble.

    11. Re:Other forms of payment by DuckDodgers · · Score: 2

      No, the reasons for a lack of commercial Linux games are quite different:

      1. Linux desktop users make up a tremendously small portion of the home PC market. The development effort to port everything to Linux and support it is likely not to cover the added costs.
      2. Many people run Linux at home to get good use of hardware that can't handle Microsoft XP or Vista. Most modern games wouldn't run on those machines even if they were ported to Linux.
      3. A portion of the Linux user-base are free software advocates, so some are philosophically opposed to purchasing proprietary software.

      That's why Linux ports of big games rarely happen.

      On the other hand, compatibility from generation to generation of Linux applications is pretty solid. WINE is a notable exception because using a few hundred volunteers to reverse engineer a Microsoft API built by tens of thousands of paid developers is a big deal. I'm astonished WINE is as good as it is.

  3. Dialbo 3 by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    The sounds you hear are college careers ending before they've even begun.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:Dialbo 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh krud. Fool me once shame on you, Blizzard, feel me twice shame on me. There goes my second chance at finally graduating. At this rate, I'll never be able to afford my own basement.

    2. Re:Dialbo 3 by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
      The sounds you hear are college careers ending before they've even begun.

      Yes, and it sounds like this:

      click.

      click.

      clickclick.

      click.

      clickclickclick.

      clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick...

    3. Re:Dialbo 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well Diablo I wrecked my middle school career, and Diablo II got my high school career. I already graduated from college, so I guess Diablo III gets to take my marriage or job...

  4. Phew by Godji · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am so glad I never got around to playing the first two. That way, I'll have a good reason not to play this one - I've missed the storyline.

    Think of the countless hours I saved by saving countless hours twice before!

  5. Rating Pending by rpillala · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fair enough, but the www site asked me to enter my date of birth before showing me the cinematic teaser trailer. Then I watched the teaser trailer and didn't see anything even remotely offensive in it. Did anyone else see like a bare tit or extreme violence in there that I missed?

    Just the existence of demons and monsters is an issue?

    --
    When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    1. Re:Rating Pending by Machtyn · · Score: 4, Informative

      The teaser didn't have much in it, but the gameplay video has some pretty sick and gruesome stuff happening in it. (Particularly at the end when they show you half of a big boss battle and the big boss picks up the barbarian and ... happens.)

    2. Re:Rating Pending by rpillala · · Score: 2, Informative

      That is true, and it could just be that I clicked on the teaser first and that's when I got the age prompt. There is a ton of blood flying around in the gameplay demo.

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    3. Re:Rating Pending by Kagura · · Score: 5, Funny

      Did anyone else watching the (very impressive and representative) gameplay video think to yourselves, "Pick up the chipped star topaz. Pick it up. WHERE ARE YOU GO--PICK IT UP!!"?

      Ahhhh, this is the game for me. :)

  6. Bring out the nerf bat by Admiral+Ag · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought I'd be first with: It's clear that witch doctors are massively overpowered. I demand a nerf.

    --
    "by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
  7. Oh the humanity by Scr3wFace · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just when I kick my crack habbit... Go figure

  8. Yeah, so, the gem by Yacoby · · Score: 5, Funny

    OK, so, I have been to the site, but what does the gem do? I heard if you click it 100 times, you get sent a beta...

    1. Re:Yeah, so, the gem by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Funny

      The gem is working as intended.

  9. "Highly Cooperative" by n0dna · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only thing that frightens me is that they describe the game as "highly cooperative."

    That's what killed Diablo II for most of the legit players. If you were lucky, maybe as many as 2 people you knew in real life were also players, so you were left to play with strangers and 9 year-olds on Battle.Net. The 1.10 patch made the game no longer possible to finish by yourself.

    It's tough to assemble a party of reasonable size from cheaters and griefers and beggars, let alone the guy with the hacked gear who drops in, kills Diablo, Pindleskin, Mephisto, then Baal, and then drops right back out while you're still in the middle of Act 1.

    Co-Op is great, but please don't force those of us who enjoy playing the game to rely on the children who can't afford the $15 a month for WoW.

    1. Re:"Highly Cooperative" by rpillala · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm sure the game will have a single player mode. Wait, here from the FAQ:

      Will there be a single-player component in addition to multiplayer?

      Yes. In addition to battling the hordes of the Burning Hells cooperatively with friends over Battle.net, players will be able to adventure through the world of Diablo III solo. More details on both the single-player and multiplayer experience will be revealed at a later date.

      You might also look into TOG, a multi-game guild with a minimum age of 25. This is when men's brains are finally fully formed, so you get a decent group of folks there.

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    2. Re:"Highly Cooperative" by Narishma · · Score: 2, Funny

      Make new friends.

      --
      Mada mada dane.
    3. Re:"Highly Cooperative" by Explodicle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The best way to get GOOD co-op if your friends don't play is to join one of the few remaining guilds. I'be been a member of the Amazon Basin for years, and they're still a bunch of fun, skilled, and mature teammates. Even without them, one can solo all the way through Hell difficulty with the right character builds.

    4. Re:"Highly Cooperative" by Kneo24 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It did, for the most part. You needed some highly decked out gear to be able to reasonbly solo hell difficulty. After the 1.10 patch, my bowazon, which didn't have uber gear, took over an hour to beat Baal. Before that patch I could solo the game reasonably.

    5. Re:"Highly Cooperative" by StupidKatz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The only thing that frightens me is that they describe the game as "highly cooperative."

      That's what killed Diablo II for most of the legit players. If you were lucky, maybe as many as 2 people you knew in real life were also players, so you were left to play with strangers and 9 year-olds on Battle.Net. The 1.10 patch made the game no longer possible to finish by yourself.

      No, this is wrong. It IS possible to finish Diablo II while solo - I've done so with at least a necromancer (which were given enough of a boost in 1.10 to make this possible) and a shape-shifting wolf druid.

      Diablo II was - and still is - a fantastic single-player game which can be beaten solo. You do need to think a bit while building the character, though, and some characters are more difficult to play this way than others.

  10. Re:But by ewrong · · Score: 4, Funny

    yes 4.2 million times by me alone.

  11. Assuming you're not joking by ctid · · Score: 4, Informative

    Grab the skull on the right-hand side and use it as a slider. That's how it works here on Safari.

    --
    Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
  12. Re:There goes my productivity again by oDDmON+oUT · · Score: 3, Informative

    Doesn't the Blizzard native OS X installer, also discussed here, work on MacIntels?

    I've been considering using Diablo II to wean myself from a year long umbilical WoW connection and hadn't had a chance to try it yet.

    --
    Some days it's just not worth
    chewing through my restraints.
  13. What are we killing now? by andytrevino · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've already killed Diablo in Diablo 1. Then, in Diablo II, we killed him AGAIN, and killed his brothers and scores of underling bosses.

    Are we now killing him a THIRD time, along with his brothers, cousins, college roommate, and that guy he talked to at the bus stop last week? How does Evil(tm) finance its operation and pay its underling bosses? More importantly, how many computer mice must the forces of Good(tm) sacrifice to stop this nonsense?!

    1. Re:What are we killing now? by ConanG · · Score: 4, Informative

      He wasn't killed in D1. The soulstone trapped his essence. Then your idiot hero sticks it in his head and becomes Diablo (aka "The Wanderer") in D2.

      Don't know what happens in D3 obviously, but the soulstones are destroyed. My guess is something to do with Tyriel in Heaven. Maybe a war in Heaven leading to a new "Diablo"?

    2. Re:What are we killing now? by Gavin+Scott · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The whole thing was a plot by Tyriel to allow him to arrange the destruction of the world stone, the only thing standing in the way of his final conquest of heaven and earth.

      Tyriel is clearly going to be the end boss of D3.

      G.

    3. Re:What are we killing now? by Kingrames · · Score: 4, Informative

      In case you didn't read the instruction manual that came with the first game, the only way to contain the flawed soulstone of mephisto was to implant it into the skull of the person most resistant to the lure of evil and to lock him away.

      The hero of the first game was clearly aware of this and made the ultimate sacrifice, mind, body, and soul, to contain Diablo long enough for someone else to find a way to destroy him and his brothers and the soulstones.

      Dammit, man, now you've got me geeking out.

      --
      If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  14. Re:website/browser problem by ConanG · · Score: 5, Informative

    Youtube video of opening trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGNLFnADJ_0

    Gameplay video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPxRoG4g6mw
    and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnmD0aqDqTM

    Not as high quality as on the official site, but you take what you can get, eh?

  15. Re:OMFG by ewrong · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's been a hell of a long wait, bring on the mindless hack & slash.

  16. Play it soon by wildzeke · · Score: 3, Funny

    I hear that Limbo of the Lost 2 is going to predominately feature Diablo 3 content.

  17. Early alpha review up by TheGreatOrangePeel · · Score: 5, Funny
    to quote the review for the alpha,

    Clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclick...

    1. Re:Early alpha review up by M0ralGray · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm hoping the collector's edition comes with a case of mice.

  18. Re:Why isn't this a console title? by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All three next-generation consoles have USB ports, so just make it "requires keyboard and mouse".

    I wish all console games supported it too, first-person shooters with a stupid gamepad and crappy analog sticks doesn't cut it.

  19. Re:Why isn't this a console title? by DeeQ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually D1 Was also released on the Ps1. I have a copy in my house somewhere. (Much preferred to play on the pc tho)

  20. Re:Astonishingly boring? by christurkel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its fun, mindless hack and slash adventure. It's nice to take a break, sometimes.

    --

    CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
  21. Re:Why isn't this a console title? by eddy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    >no. to do that would be to alienate their core audience

    What? Their greatest fans are going to go.. ''Oh, must hav... wait, there's a PS3 version too? Then I will not buy the PC version. Blizzard are traitors!''

    I'm not talking about dumbing down (ha!) the PC version, I'm talking about doing console versions too.

    I too have both a mouse and keyboard plugged into my PS3, but sadly console developers seems stuck in the 80s and, with a few exceptions, believe people actually PREFER the standard controller in games like FPSes.

    In fact, I cancelled my Battlefield: Bad Company pre-order when no dev would commit to fixing this issue. B:BC is so backwards that you can't even flip the left and right analog controls. Apparently the 10% of the population that are left-handed and have better motor skills in their left hand (which controls movement, the right controls aiming), can just go suck it.

    Sometimes I wonder what kind of idiots design these games. They have millions-of-dollar budgets, but can't get a basic thing like keyboard and mouse support, or even swapping left/right stick, into the game. They do have time to plaster the internet with weekly screenshots and videos though.

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  22. Re:Why isn't this a console title? by FloodSpectre · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If I recall, that PS1 version also had your character moving at double normal speeds, which seemed a little strange. I never played it, but a friend of mine in high school owned it after I got him addicted to the PC version.

    Also seems it was published by EA. Bet you wouldn't see that happening these days.

  23. Absolute evil can never be killed by sheetsda · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... until all the money has been completely milked out of it.

  24. Re:System Requirements? by mattgoldey · · Score: 2, Informative

    On the FAQ page, they say that the system requirements will announced later.

  25. Re:website/browser problem by Aaron+England · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not as high quality as on the official site, but you take what you can get, eh?

    Under the youtube video there's a "watch in high quality" link which will play it in similar quality to the official site.

  26. Re:Astonishingly boring? by -noefordeg- · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because we all know that Diablo and Diablo 2 were just graphics and lots of zombies =/

    The item generation (Slot machine principle), character templates and development, and fast paced gameplay was Diablo 1 & 2. Blizzard manage to include everything which makes a game fun in Diablo 1 & 2, not only for you, but for those playing with a group of friends too.

    With patches changing the game dynamics of Diablo 2, the game provided us with several years of experimenting with different character templates.

    Seems to me that you either haven't played Diablo games or "just don't get it" :)

    But who cares?!
    Diablo 3 is coming!!! Hell YEAH!

    PS.
    This coming from someone who just last month, played Diablo 2 on his MacBook at the airport. Not a single game has kept me coming back for more like the way Diablo 2 has =)

  27. New diablo 2 patch by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just browsing, and look what I found:

    - Patch 1.12

              Downloadable Installer Support

    - If all required Diablo 2 '.MPQ' files are installed on the
        hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.

          For users that originally performed a 'Full Installation'
          and wish to run without the CD, all '.MPQ' files should
          be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory.
          Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the
          Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of
          Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music
          files and rename them to 'Diablo II Music' and
          'Diablo II Expansion Music' respectively.

          Anyone who did not perform a 'Full Installation' will need
          to re-install from CD again to ultimately play without the CD.
          In this case, a 'Full Installation' is required, followed by file
          copy step noted above.

    nice of them to think about letting us play these old games like this.

  28. Quick! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Buy Logitech stocks now! ;)

  29. Re:Don't worry... by joshtheitguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    18 months until the release? Maybe not, I'm thinking 18 months until the first set of delays.

  30. Re:But by morari · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Diablo could always come back for a third time...

    I think a much more reasonable story would probably involve Azmodan and Belial however, two of the Lesser Evils mentioned through tomes in the first game.

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  31. Re:Don't worry... by Evanisincontrol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm ok with that. Blizzard doesn't (necessarily) have a reputation for fast, on-time releases; instead, they have a reputation for good releases. I'd much rather wait for two years for a rock solid game (as Blizzard has always provided us in the past) than get it in one year and have it be a waste of money.

  32. Re:NATIVE Linux port. by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is using the WINE API different from using any other API, like OpenGL? If the library exists, and they ensure they only use the parts of WINE that work, then what's the actual downside of using WINE?

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  33. Re:website/browser problem by hampton · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you add "&fmt=18" to the query string of a YouTube video, it'll play the high quality version (if there is one).

  34. Re:Don't worry... by ottothecow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    considering the gameplay demo...I would say they have been working on this for a long time already

    --
    Bottles.
  35. Re:Whoa...not until they finish StarCraft 2 by Kneo24 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The original developers created Hellgate: London, and that game was terrible. It's clearly not the developers who made the Diablo series what it, it's Blizzard, as a whole.

  36. Boss Fight Video from Gametrailers.com by Asomatous · · Score: 2, Informative
  37. Re:Don't worry... by wernercd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apparently we must not be... We are talking about the Blizzard that has made industry top rated, beyond top selling games. Maybe you've heard of Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft. Which Blizzard are you talking about?

  38. I was expecting a console release by billtom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was expecting Diablo 3, but I actually thought that Blizzard would move it to a console title.

    Business-wise, getting some of that juicy console money seems like a no-brainer for Blizzard (or their corporate masters). The *-craft games are somewhat problematic to move to the consoles, but Diablo looks like an excellent candidate: fondly remembered IP, a fallow period so people can't complain too much about gameplay changes, and the action heavy diablo style suits the consoles well.

    But no. Windows and Mac, they say. Seems like a missed opportunity to me.

    1. Re:I was expecting a console release by CronoCloud · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Maybe Blizzard is bitter about Snowblind muscling in on their territory and basically "owning" the console Diablo clone market with games based on their engine. Didn't the gameplay video look very similar to all those snowblind engine games, ripple water and everything? Blizzard's playing catchup now.

  39. As a long time Diablo (d1/d2/d2x) fan... by fgaliegue · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I just hope that Blizzard will NOT go down the route they have chosen to go with the latest d2x updates. That is, keep the best stuff (items) for online gaming.

    This, essentially, sucks. What I want to do is play d2x, or d3 when it comes out, on my machine at home, with my characters on my computer, and not have to go online to create a character just to get this and that item, that I cannot get back to my homebrewn character. That just SUCKS.

    As a result, I found myself using cheat packs that made such objects accessible to non bnet users. How pitiful is that?

    I just DO NOT want to play online. That's not too much asking, is it?

  40. Re:Don't worry... by thanatos_x · · Score: 2, Interesting

    He might be referring to the fact that blizzard doesn't seem to do terribly well on the console side; ghost got canceled, and I haven't heard anywhere close to the same kind of praise for things like lost vikings as for SC, WC and Diablo.

    The only PC game they botched was a WC spinoff, lord of the clans (or something), which was never actually released since they couldn't make it nearly perfect.

    In general blizzard has the track record of pixar. Valve, Nintendo, and Square Enix release good games, but every PC game Blizzard releases is pretty much game of the year material. Their expansion packs are game of the year material.

    --
    I am not an expert. If I am misled in something, please correct me.
  41. Re:Diablo 3? by OutLawSuit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Diablo 3 was already in development well before Roper and them left to create Flagship Studios and Blizzard just took the reins of what they had already started.

    It is also quite apparent Diablo would not be what it is today without Blizzard. Bill Roper and Flagship may be the original creators of Diablo but they obviously couldn't capture what made Blizzard games so addictive and fun in Hellgate: London. Yes, some of that had to do with funding but it doesn't excuse many of the flaws in Hellgate: London.

    Basically I'd say the credit for Blizzard games transcends above any specific group of people within the company. It is the whole Blizzard way of doing things that ultimately makes their games shine.

  42. People, Flagship is NOT Blizzard North by Samuel_Gompers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Less than 1/4 of the Blizzard North people with credits on "Diablo II" went to Flagship. Also, only TWO people from Blizzard North with a credit on Diablo II are working in Irvine as of the past year! Just a few of the names who did NOT go to Flagship AND are not currently working in Irvine: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/diablo-ii/credits http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/hellgate-london/credits - Both people named as designers (Hedlund and Sexton) - The artist who created "Diablo" (Okamura) - The original animator of "Diablo" (Haas) - The lead programmer (Seis) - The entire in-game music/audio team (Stone, Petersen, Uelman) - The character artists behind the Paladin, Sorceress, and Barbarian and countless monsters (Johnson, Dashow) - The illustration genius behind the UI art (Boos) - All three level designers (McAuley, Scandizzo, Wilson) Additionally, Bill Roper never had an office at Blizzard North during the making of any of those releases - he moved soon AFTER they were released. The idea that "Well, Hellgate was a flop, so it must have been Blizzard all along that made it..." is unfounded and stupid. The sad reality is that Blizzard North was basically cast to the wind and can never be reformed in any real way.

  43. Re:Don't worry... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2, Funny

    IOW, a different Blizzard than the one in the article.