"Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry)," the email read, continuing, "This change won't impact the game ... we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward." Funny – the job posting doesn't mention anything about "must own fire-retardant undergarments" or "must possess an ability to weather fans' lamentations over your use of a color palette." Oh well, whoever Blizzard hires will find out soon enough.
[Via MTV]
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
(Page 1) Reader Comments
still can't wait to play it!
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I was really surprised at the outcry because D2 was very vibrant and colorful. Sometimes the colors even clashed horribly together. Don't get me wrong, I loved D2, still play it to this day, but to me the new visual style looks like it has more consistency and I think that's a welcome change. Regarding the light radii, I don't really care too much either way.
On another note, I think the guy they interviewed last weeks answers were pretty bogus across the board. They can't replicate dynamic lighting in a game? It can only be done in photoshop? what? There is dynamic lighting in a ton of games. If only they'd just come out and say "We chose this art style, it's too late to fix it even if we wanted too, sorry to anyone that doesn't like it" it would be fine. Instead they are trying to say that Diablo II was colorful, and that the atmosphere wasn't dark...when it obviously was.
Meh, I'll enjoy the game I'm sure, but I'll be applying the first mood darkening mod I can find.
wat?
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GIVE ME COLOR! (seriously.. act 1 in Diablo 2 is GREEN! people are insane.)
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/emo
YOU DONT UNDERSTAND, DIABLO WAS ABOUT PAIN, AND SUFFERING. THATS WHAT MADE IT SO BEAUTIFUL. IT WAS REAL. NOW THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY THE BEAUTY, OF IT, JUST SO THE GAME CAN BE EASIER TO PLAY! THEY TOOK AWAY ITS SOUL!!!!
Boolean sarcasm = false
Damn Emos
You could play in the day or play in the night and it had some great visual effects for back in the day. I don’t know who started with the “Colors/coulors hurt my eyes” complains (Hopefully that person will burn in hell with every game that is brown or grey and that covers a huge ground).
Now so far D3 is looking grim I don’t know if should feel hyped, if its good great if is not I lose nothing but I hope it turns out well I would hate to see one of my favorite games be rubbish for some retarded fanboy complains also that it seems D3 is more for the WOW crowd than the original fan base (No Blizzard, Cain doesn’t counts as fan service seriously the guy should be death already he is like 100 years old ).
Finally using my serious face my only complain about the game is that it looks way too much like Dungeon Siege but that’s because we are in the same old Forest and Dungeons we have explored a thousand time in every damn RPG, seriously the beauty about Diablo is that it was original ,it had great CGI and one hell of a story (no pun intended).
You declared boolean variable sarcasm twice in the same namespace, forgot your terminators, forgot your comments.
I'm afraid thats not going to compile.
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Let me ask you a question, will you be buying the game knowing that the colors are oh so bright? So bright that it puts the Super Mario games to shame cause that's what you "hardcore" Diablo fans make it out to be.
Diablo's color palette was drab and washed-out because the game launched in the fsckin' mid-1990s, when PCs in general couldn't handle hundreds of thousands of colors on-screen at any kind of playable speed in an action game.
Its art direction was FORCED by technical limitations! Diablo2 was plenty colorful and vibrant in almost all of the overworld maps, and even some of the indoors environments as well, so what the hell are all the people fussing about? 0_o
Gloomy? Yes.
Dark? Yes.
But Diablo hasn't ever been scary.
I want to get a real answer to my question. If you guessed I don't get a sense of "big brother is watching" (Brian Morrisroe's words) from the neon green splattered all over the dungeon, you'd be right, but what I wanted to know is whether I was alone. I want to know what you, the guy ticked off that someone is concerned with this, if YOU think it effectively conveys what the artist himself said he was trying to convey with it. This isn't about whether or not you or I like it or are going to buy the game; just answer the question.
Oh, I don't have anything against the spell effects. Then again, I didn't mean to infer I was talking about them. All but three of the dungeon screenshots on the official website are drenched in, bright green, so it shouldn't be hard to miss. You're saying it appears as a subtle hue? And that it does indeed convey horror to you? That's interesting. I know it's not feasible to get a large sampling here, but at least I know Brian's not totally alone. Anyone else want to chime in?
Ok now I'm all for a colorful Diablo, but that comment is just bullshit. I've seen this kind of thing before, someone tried to explain away the first Quake's brownness by saying PC's back then couldn't handle all the colors. LOL! I could go and list the countless games containing every color of the rainbow that came out during and before the time Diablo was released, but, god, this is obviously ridiculous as it is. Next thing you're telling me a main character's max HP is capped because of memory limitations.
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- Gothic and obscure scenarios, cryptic, dark and shadowy dungeons
- Graphically realistic world with realistic, dirty and muddy textures (+_+) CANT SEE
- Realistic armory and weaponry without over-sized and exaggerated proportions like big shoulder guards ( have they ever played diablo?)
- A macabre, dark and realistic art style " (DIDN'T they already say that one, back when it said gothic?!)
Penny arcade said it the best.
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They're probably talking about World of Diablo's ridiculous shoulders, weapons, and shields that look like spaceships.
D2 was fine, WoD (aka WoW) gets too ridiculous.
Diablo 2 would have had shoulderpads looking like "spaceships" also, had everything not been pre-rendered in sprite form. There simply wasn't enough storage space either on disc or in memory for more than a few different shoulderpad designs, when they all had to be rendered in 16 different angles and for a large variety of poses and movements. It totally fits with the genre, diablo had plenty of outrageous armor pieces and weapons so what are you on about?
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On another note, these overzelous fanboys really need to familiarize themselves with ENBSeries, http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/download_en.htm
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If you have to upgrade your computer, then they've failed. Not that this is a bad thing, but Blizzard's really going out of their way to make this and all their games as low-poly and runnable as possible. I'd be really surprised if anyone in the world couldn't run it on their computer, even if it's a laptop from a few years ago.
Low system requirements doesn't necesarrily mean that everyone will be meeting them, some people just have old junkers. That's not Blizzards fault.
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Let me point something out, mmmkay?
Titan Quest had bright happy colors even in the places that were supposed to be dark and evil
Dungeon Siege had bright happy colors even in places that were intended to be dark and evil
Do we really need Diablo to cotton candy it's evil to make it palatable as well?
The issue isn't the presence of color, it's the misuse of it in certain areas of the game such as the interiors of crypts.
Color is an essential element of presenting a vivid virtual world, but misusing it is just as bad as giving the Mona Lisa a nice shock of pink raver hair.
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If they decided to add clouds with happy faces in the sky and rainbow marsh mellows to regain health and the gameplay was awesome I'd still buy that shit. Stop complaining wait till more info and more screen shots are released before you people make yourselves look more pathetic.
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/6
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The worst part about all this dismissive and insulting commentary on anyone taking an issue with the game is that so many of those people who can recognize something's off with the visuals can't express it correctly. When they see the color being misused, they wrongly say there's too much color. People love jumping all over that.
Cuteunit, you've got it right; it's not that color is bad; we all recognize the previous games had loads of color and light in them, it's just that Brian Morrisroe has a strange reaction to neon green; he finds it disturbing somehow, and so puts it all over the scary dungeon to emphasize the horror. I realize people are allowed to react to things how they will, but even still, that's a little messed up, isn't it? I asked earlier if anyone feels the same way Brian does about the green, but I don't think anyone does. I mean, even loyalists of the way it looks now don't say the art is conveying scary or creepy moods, even though that was Brian's intention all along.
What does that mean, though, when no one in either camp thinks he succeeded in his attempt to convey the horror in the game? I think it makes him look bad at his job. If you're reading this, Brian, no offense--I respect you, but you have to admit your use of color doesn't work as intended.
The unfortunate thing is that it looks like Blizzard has taken a liking to messing with the fans. Did you hear about how one of the artists, after hearing some people legitimately point out how rainbows only work against the game's horror vibe, began painting rainbows all over the game's environments? What a shame Blizzard has decided to be so readily dismissive and insulting to what is, admittedly under mountains of terrible grammar, over-dramatization and unbelievable claims of boycotts, valuable and constructive feedback. I would have thought that Blizzard would have learned to recognize that these knee-jerk reactions are being caused by something, and to figure out what that is to examine it and make sure it's what they want in the game.
You might say they've already decided not to work for a horror vibe in the game in favor of a more lighthearted, cartoony and greener game than its predecessors, but that's not what Brian said at the WWI; not at all. That's the contradiction I can't get my head around. On the one hand, the Art Director said they want to be consistent with the previous games and make a dark horror game with grit, realism and a hint of stylization without being too cartoony. On the other hand, the Lead Designer says he's happy with the new, lighter and more cartoony direction they've decided to go in, and wants to see how much further they can push the style (away from horror, obviously).
Which statement is a lie? Is it the one about being consistent with the older games? Then why don't they just say so? I don't expect the new Prince of Persia to be consistent with the previous games because they straight-up said it won't be, right from the beginning. Because they said that, they've got all the freedom and license to do whatever they want with it and fans don't feel cheated or lied to. They can do the same with Diablo 3 if they really, really want to, that's OK!, they just need to stop sending mixed signals so we can all know what to expect from the game and accept it.
If tomorrow they said they're going to make it cel-shaded, at least I wouldn't feel like they're just getting horror wrong.
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Just think about the upcoming expansion for WoW, it's a huge difference from what Outlands looks like with all the floating islands and crazy looking pink and purple magic swirls in the sky. Wrath of the Lichking looks and feels a lot darker, the more gothic architecture is a much better fit for the WoW universe. That's all Blizz man you gotta trust them, I'm in the Beta at the moment and Wrath is ten times better then what BC currently is when it comes to the look of the game.
If Blizz shows off more of Diablo III and we still have brightly lit dungeons all over the place then I think more people will agree with you and the others complaints, but at this moment it's a little premature to get all up in arms about the 2 different zones that they decided to show off. So be patient and wait and see what else they show off, cause at the moment like I said before all those people that are signing that petition make me "Face Palm" from how pathetic I think they are.
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People! Stop fucking whining about the current art direction in Diablo 3. Shut your fucking twat mouths up. You're whining over something retarded. I swear to god, you whiners all need to choke to death on some fish-hooks or something. You're whining over the fact that this game has a rainbow or two, or that it doesn't look dark and dreary enough. IT'S FUCKING COLOR! If you don't like a little color in your game, then I suggest you don't play Diablo 3!
You whiners need to shut the fuck up, and die!
If I get banned for this post, I don't fucking care. It needs to be said.
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