Diablo III's interface, in your face

by Randy Nelson on Mar 30th 2009 10:30PM

Click to enlarge

When is an inventory screen more than an inventory screen? Well, never, actually. But this is Diablo III's inventory screen. Which, for whatever reason, makes us want to play the game even more. Maybe it's because it makes Diablo's third coming look more ... playable?

Also, note that the menus are really quite dark. You might even say they look Diablo-ish. But, for some, they'll never be dark enough.

[Via Shacknews]

Diablo III Interface

Source

Tags: blizzard, diablo-3

Reader Comments (53)

So Sick!!

I just hope the game comes out in summer, otherwise I will fail every single course in university.

No kidding, going back to school and I hope I can get this out of the way during summer.

That's easy. Go to lectures with a laptop and play your Diablo there. Go home and study.

That's what I'll be doing (it worked for me with The Witcher this semester!).

Your laptop idea sounds not too bad actually. I currently have the issue of going to lectures, then coming home and playing video games.

Sadly, this results in little studying or homework getting done. I pay attention in the lectures just fine but theres a difference between hearing about how a problem is done and actually doing the work required to solve the problem.

If the first time your trying a problem is on a midterm, your study habits aren't good... ... Sigh. Just another 2 weeks of cramming and I'm out of university! Woot!

@Wes:

Then real life begins =(.

Cheers.

The game looks more and more like world of warcraft every time I see it. The screenshot on the far right is the worst offender.

I'm still going to buy it, but I'm going to have to play with my sunglasses on to get the proper mood going. I usually only wear them at night, but I'm not above wearing them during the day if necessary.

agree'ed, the skill tree now looks the WoW talent tree

thats how the talent trees looked like before... I dont know where your going with this.

Guize, don't imply that Diablo came from WoW. Diablo 2 looks like that, back when kids suicided because their accounts got hacked. In 2000.

Diablo II looked like that...if you dim the lights, add skewered corpses on poles, and narrow the color pallet.

I can respect the opinion that the new art style is better, but I can't understand how people could think Diablo ever looked anything like that.

Is the WoW talent tree bad? I always liked it.

That is the same tree that Diablo has always had.

No, the new skill tree looks nothing like the D2 skill tree. It's not a tree, its a couple of lines and a bunch of individual tiles. The only D2 skill tree out of any class that looked remotely like that was Barbarian masteries, and even that was more interconnected.

Also, the replacement of the mana orb with a rage meter for barbarians disappoints me greatly. Great, now I have to hit things with a crappy normal attack before I can being mowing through demon hordes. Assassin charged martial arts skills sucked in D2 for precisely that reason. They're going to have a hard time balancing that against spell spammers in pvp if the pvp is anything like that of D2.

Your gripe is that the new tree isn't in a perfect tree shape? It looks like they've added tabs with different skill types, instead of having one enormous tree.

From the gameplay demo, it looked like business as normal for Barbs. We'll see I guess.

People who complain that the game isn't "dark enough" are dumb.

I played many many hours of Diablo 2 and you know what my only real gripe with the game was? The obnoxious darkness that was all over the place. Diablo 3 looks spectacular.

If the game isn't dark enough for them, they can just dim the lights in their parents basement. Problem solved.

I don't understand how people can say they think the setting looks boring from essentially ONE video and a few screenshots. Nobody has played the game, how do they know?

Blizzard has tons of experience with these kinds of games, give them time, let things happen and judge the game AFTER it is done, not before.

I have faith that it will be a fantastic game.

Most people complaining about the lack of "darkness" aren't complaining about the gamma being too high. They are complaining that the game doesn't appear (from what has been shown) to be anywhere near as thematically dark as Diablo I and II. It's obvious why that is, since the team that did those games isn't doing this one, but that doesn't make our gripes any less valid.

I've said it before; A mod will probably come out in the first month that completely changes the look of the game to suit the people that dislike it in its current form. I haven't passed judgment on the game yet, considering that they've barely shown any of it, but I can understand why hardcore Diablo fans wouldn't exactly be thrilled with the new art style. I'm not freaking out though, because from what I've seen, the gameplay looks as solid as ever.

2 rings, 1 amulet, 1 other thing like amulet, but when will magical earings come in?

Those come free with purchase.

those are the shoulder plates

As stated, the game will never be dark enough.

It is too WoWish
but the change in interface is nice

Yep. Looks like a Diablo inventory screen.

This game can't come out soon enough.

Am I the only one who's going to miss playing Inventory Tetris?

I don't think the people who are making Diablo III care all that much for the original design team, or the hardcore D I and D II fan base. I think the game will be amazing, though, but at this point I think Blizzard is making games for the masses with a strong emphasis on getting their massive WoW subscriber base as comfortable with their other offerings as well. Can you imagine the revenues they will have if they can convince even 60% of their current worldwide subscriber base to purchase D III?

Tabbed inventory, how to expand space within a limited area.

When you buy the expansion pack. Just like Diablo 2. Guess that's why they call it the expansion pack.

Grayscale, lensflare and bloom coming in 3, 2....

Wow this game is way too colorful for me, what happened to the dark gothic style graphics I remember in D2 such as:

http://i40.tinypic.com/nvqgew.jpg

You know, when first person shooters have muted colour pallettes and "are all grey and brown" everyone whines and complains that they aren't colourful enough. Now we have Diablo 3 coming out which is vivid and colourful while still retaining a pretty dark tone (in my opinion) and everyone complains that it is too colourful.

Make up your effin minds people.

I think diablo2fan4ever was being sarcastic.

I can haz nao plz?

Previous Diablo games had primary colors slapped around all over the place. People probably only remember them being somehow 'darker' in tone\atmosphere because they allowed those games to draw them in and spark their imagination.

If Diablo 3 is any good, which it is likely to be, the same thing will happen, and after a bit of playtime it won't need justification. The grainier graphics of the older games may have contributed to the perceived bleakness, and D3's graphics definitely look slicker, but I sincerely doubt Blizzard would make a Diablo game and not imbue it with bleakness.

nobody loved Diablo because of the look. The look of the game wasn't so different than other top down rpg's of the time. It was the gameplay and the loot that made the game a hit and it will be those things that make D3 great.

are we sure that's D3 we're lookin' at and not WoW?

WoW didn't have a top-down point of view when last I checked.

Granted, that was about three months ago...

um, it can, you can move the camera around

I have no idea what people's beef is with the art style. Played D2 for 3 years straight, never played WoW and the art direction looks fine to me from what I've seen.

Interface in particular is looking very awesome. So next spring hopefully?

Did you say next, next, next, next, next Spring Ryan? Yes, I think that might fit Blizzard's rigorous and time-test system for release schedules.

Agreed. Its looking pretty sick. I can't wait till it gets released!! Finally, something to do that's entirely not educational but entirely fun.

In regards to all the comments below about it looking too bright, its just your shiny lcd monitors are so much brighter than the dim monitors of crt of the early 2000s. :). Don't worry, Diablo 1 and 2 both had gamma settings you could change to make the video niceee and dark such that you could barely see past your character's light radius.

I'm sure Diablo 3 will have gamma settings. If not, you can setup custom color profiles/brightness settings within windows. You could even tone down the colors to make it seem almost black and white or shades of gray if it floats your boat. That's the great part about PCs. They are so customizeable, upgradeable and it all only takes a second.

Too bright! I want it so dark I can't even see my mouse pointer. I want to be surprised with every click!

What the heck? The 5s don't look like 6s. Someone's getting fired for that.

Godlike. This game needed to come out like, 5 years ago. :)

Every time someone complains about there being too much color in D3, I'm utterly confused. I played 2, and those screens look perfectly fine to me. Not a question of approving or disapproving the "new style", I just don't see it!
Is there something wrong with me? I just read somewhere that video games *improve* your vision!

Besides, I think anyone unfamiliar with diablo would say that this looks like a pretty dark and gritty game.

I agree with you. I played the hell out of the first two games (badum tsh) and D3 looks right on track to me.

Release date: 2012 :p

I want now!

Looking through these screens made me come to a sad realization that I had been putting off for months - No matter the timing, no matter the price, I will pretty much be playing this game non-stop from the moment it comes out, possibly for months. I should probably get some stuff done now, because I'm not getting anything done once this thing hits.

The interface not only resembles WoW, it resembles the interface of a blizzard game. Nothing wrong with it. I think it looks slick.

If it bothers you, just remember that the modding community should cater to your needs.

My first thought looking at the screen shots was "Wow! It's World of Warcraft!" That's not necessarily a bad thing though. WoW is the most ridiculously successful game ever.

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Diablo III's interface, in your face

Diablo III Interface

Reader Comments (53)

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