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Blizzard says no Diablo 3 in 2010, 'who knows' when it'll be released

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 22nd 2009 at 8:00PM }

Remember that silly, insane rumor from back in 2008 about Diablo 3 being released by Blizzard before StarCraft 2? Turns out that Blizzard's Rob Pardo thinks that's a bunch of hogwash. Rather, that's at least what we can infer from his recent conversation with Techland on the subject. "We always announce all of our games too early," he says. "I think it's safe to say that, yeah, [Diablo 3] is not going to be out next year."

Considering StarCraft 2's delay to 2010, we think it's fair to assume that Diablo 3 will in fact not be arriving before a StarCraft sequel. Pardo adds that it's not a question of lacking resources, as "each game has individual development teams; it's just that the way that we develop games, we develop them very iteratively." Worse yet, there doesn't seem to be a finish line in sight for D3. "Now when we announce [a game] we just go, 'Here's the game we're working on, we're going to start talking about it and who knows when it ships.'" If any of you were still holding your breath for Diablo 3's release, now might be a good time to exhale.

[Via Big Download]

Gallery: Diablo 3 (9/5/09)

Torchlight dev speaks about Blizzard competition, MMO plans

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 12th 2009 at 3:30PM }

Max Schaefer, co-founder of Torchlight developer Runic Games (and former Blizzard North staffer) recently sat down for the most terrifying interview of his life. In an interview with German gaming news site PCGames.de, Schaefer was buffeted with strongly-worded interrogatives, at one point being told to "Defend yourself!" The harsh questioning was worth it -- Schaefer opened up about similarities between his studio's game and Diablo, explaining, "we plead guilty to trying to perfect a style of game we've worked on since the early 90's."

The more intriguing part of the interview came when Schaefer discussed the future of the series -- a future which involves a free-to-play MMORPG based in the world of Torchlight. Just because the game won't put a hurt on your wallet doesn't mean Runic Games is skimping out; according to Schaefer, the Torchlight MMO will be a large production, complete with "a lot of customization, an overworld, random and instanced dungeons, PVP, and much more!"

Schaefer added that the MMO is still about two years out. The studio plans to go into pre-production as soon as it squashes all the bugs in the offline version of Torchlight, and hopes to have the game reach the community with alpha and beta testing phases "as quickly as possible."

Hands-on with Diablo III's desert wastes

by Richard Mitchell { Sep 5th 2009 at 6:00PM }

click to enlarge

Yes, it hasn't even been a week since we brought you some hands-on impressions of Diablo III. One might say it's too soon to add to those impressions, and one might have a good point. Allow us to offer a counterpoint: It's Diablo III. This game, at the very earliest, will not release until 2025 (Q4, of course). As such, we have to provide you with any and all possible coverage. It would be irresponsible not to. Besides, there's some new stuff to cover here, and it's good stuff.

Gallery: Diablo 3 (9/5/09)

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Blizzard interview: Leo Boyarsky and Kevin Martens on Diablo 3

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 31st 2009 at 9:30PM }

We know that we've been fire-hosing Diablo 3 information on you, but keep those raincoats zipped because there's more incoming. In fact, we sat down with Leon Boyasrsky, lead world designer, and Kevin Martens, lead content artist, at BlizzCon. While they didn't drop any deafening secrets on us like ZOMG what the final class will be, they did go into further detail about the game.

Read on through for the full interview, and imagine what it'll be like if Martens gets his dream wish and they stick a Sideshow Collectibles Barbarian statue inside the Collector's Edition of the game. The chances of that actually happening are pretty much zero, but still ... we can dream.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3

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BlizzCon 2009: Martial arts secrets of Diablo 3's Monk

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 27th 2009 at 5:30PM }

When you think hardcore-fantasy, swords-and-sorcery killing machine, you think "monk," right? At BlizzCon, Diablo 3's new character class, the Monk, was unlocked, supposedly having been inspired by pen-and-paper RPGs. According to Jay Wilson, almost all of Blizzard's characters are meant to hearken back to the "golden age of RPG gaming." The Monk is designed to be a fragile, melee-based character that performs some amazingly agile moves. With skills like the "Seven-Sided Strike" and "Way of the Hundred Fists," we'd say he's stripped from a different golden age -- from the reels of 1960s and '70s Kung Fu serials. The only detail that's missing are the Bruce Lee yips.

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3

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Diablo 3 to include parental controls, region-specific gore edits

by David Hinkle { Aug 25th 2009 at 5:00PM }

Diablo 3 designer Jay Wilson was on hand at the recent GamesCom, where he met up with Wired and frankly discussed the game's gore. He confirmed that the title would not only have parental controls, but could have a lot of its signature violence stripped for select regions. "Yeah, we're going to have to be able to turn off blood, change the color and things like that, because you can't have red blood in some regions, regions that we would very much like to sell the game in," Wilson said.

Though he doesn't foresee any issue in selling the game in Germany and Australia, Blizzard will have to carefully weigh its options when it comes to a release in in China. "With our relationship with NetEase, we recently got new information about what China really wants, and it's a lengthy list. It's really hard for us to cater to. We'll try. There's no reason we wouldn't want to go there, but there is a certain point where we'd have to redo so much of the game that it's not viable anymore," Wilson explained.

BlizzCon 2009: Day one round-up

by Elizabeth Harper { Aug 22nd 2009 at 8:30AM }

The news coming from BlizzCon has been fast and furious -- and we can hardly blame you if you haven't been able to keep up with the announcements coming from Anaheim so far.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: A little expansion by the name of Cataclysm was officially announced, with a world of pain now on its way to classic Azeroth and two new races. So what's new in Azeroth? Two new races, Goblins and Worgen (Horde and Alliance respectively), the reordering and rezoning of much of Azeroth, an array of new race/class possibilities, a brand-new secondary skill, and some shake-ups in class mechanics and character/guild advancement.
DIABLO 3: Meet the Monk, the game's latest class and -- so the trailer suggests -- a kick-ass martial artist. Also, surprise surprise, the game may still be coming to a console near you.
BATTLE.NET: Battle.net will gain new features in the expansion, including an Xbox-Livesque ability to see what your friends are playing and which servers they're on, in addition to sending messages to them.
PICTURES: Here's a map of the reordered post-Cataclysm Azeroth, a gallery of the art display at BlizzCon (containing some Cataclysm art, employee-decorated noobz, and StarCraft and Diablo universe pieces), a dedicated gallery for Cataclysm concept art, and a gallery of the costumes at BlizzCon.
VIDEOS: We have video for you of the Cataclysm trailer, what Azeroth zones will look like post-Cataclysm, and the animation for Human-to-Worgen transformation.
THE GUILD: The entire cast showed up and brought the funny at their live panel and at our reader meet-up. Gallery here!

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009

New Diablo III media features Monk, deserts

by David Hinkle { Aug 21st 2009 at 5:30PM }

Hot on the heels of news that Diablo 3's new class will be the Monk, Blizzard unloaded a bunchton (that's internet-speak for "27") of new images on us. The screens not only give us a good look at some of the Monk's spells (he makes things explode, apparently), but there's also plenty of tasty concept art to ogle.

All of the locales in these shots show off a desert environment; could Lut Gholein and its surrounding areas make a return in Diablo 3? Let's hope so, this time sans annoying Horadric Staff gopher quests. You know what we're saying, right? Right, guys?

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3

New Diablo III 'Monk' class dropped on Korean Blizzard site

by Christopher Grant { Aug 21st 2009 at 2:15PM }

[Update 2:59PM – Blizzard VP Chris Metzen just confirmed the Monk during BlizzCon's opening ceremony. They've got a cinematic – surprise! – that we'll nab for you as soon as it's available. This looks like in-game footage though; it's not the normal Blizzard-quality cinematic.]

While the opening BlizzCon ceremony is just minutes away, one potential secret has already been spoiled ... by Blizzard itself. The mega-developer's own Korean site revealed the above image, showing off all the way to the right ... a new Diablo 3 class. Judging by that nifty saffron-colored robe, we're guessing this is the long-rumored Monk class. More info as we gather it.

(To find the screen for yourself, go to this Diablo 3 site and change the language to Korean. Voila!)

[Via WoW.com]

Gallery: BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3

Diablo creator to lead Marvel MMO development

by Justin McElroy { Jul 21st 2009 at 10:27AM }

We're not ones to assume that past performance is a definitive indicator of future output, especially in the games industry (Volition goes from Saint's Row to the radical Red Faction: Guerrilla? Who saw that coming?). But we can't help but be encouraged by the news that former Blizzard North boss and Diablo creator David Brevik has joined Gazillion to lead development on the Marvel Universe MMO.

We're more excited about the hire because we hope it indicates the title's gameplay direction. A more action-influenced MMO take on the world of Marvel sounds like it's been bitten by radioactive awesome.

Big Orc on Campus: We tour through Blizzard

by Kevin Kelly { Jun 29th 2009 at 12:40PM }

Blizzard's main company headquarters are, much like any other, located somewhere inside a massive corporate building complex, this one deep inside Irvine, California. Once you get past the guard gate and make your way inside, it's not quite like most business parks. For one, Blizzard has its own ginormous Orc Wolfrider statue guarding the front doors.

There's enough lush green vegetation around to conceal a Fallout-style vault, or a mechanized army of robotic dragons ... which might be where your monthly World of Warcraft fees are going. At least part of that money went to pay for the company's own sand volleyball court, where brave employees reenact that scene from Top Gun.

What other secrets does the place hold? Read on to find out, and browse through the 99 images in the gallery below, which sadly doesn't include the photos we were asked not to show or talk about. Hopefully they'll let us do that soon. For now, let the speculation begin ...

Gallery: Blizzard Tour

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Blizzard looking for short stories based on its games

by Griffin McElroy { Mar 15th 2009 at 5:30PM }

If you consider yourself to be quite the wordsmith, we suggest turning your attention to a recently announced contest from the PC gaming juggernauts at Blizzard. The developer is currently asking literarily inclined fans to produce 3,000 to 10,000-word short stories set in the universe of the Warcraft, Diablo or Starcraft series. The author of the judges' favorite novelette gets a free ride to Blizzard HQ to meet the team's writing staff, and will take home a replica Frostmourne sword with which they can behead their harshest literary critics.

You can check out the official rules here. Yes, they're disqualifying entries containing any obscene or lewd activities -- so save your "throbbing" and "heaving" for your breathtakingly erotic Sonic the Hedgehog slash fiction.

[Via Big Download]

Blizzard gives E3 the cold shoulder

by Alexander Sliwinski { Feb 5th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Blizzard doesn't need you, E3! "Activision Blizzard Inc." is showing up at E3, but one half of that power couple already plans to stay home and count its money ... and laugh at all the broken homes it's created with World of Warcraft. Giant Bomb has been told by a Blizzard rep. that the powerhouse developer will "not be attending or participating in E3 2009."

Don't worry, kids. If you want to touch the Blizzard goods, it'll probably be at a public event and the company is gonna make you pay for the privilege! Put that $100 aside for Blizzcon now (if it happens this year) and prepare to hit F5 like a monkey as soon as tickets go on sale for a (slim) chance to enter the Blizzaphile lovefest.

[Image]

Blizzard unleashes five new Diablo III screenshots

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 9th 2009 at 10:18AM }

Click for shocking new images.

It's like Christmas all over again for Blizzard fans. The company showed off new images of Starcraft II just a few days ago. But wait! There's more in that bag o' goodies. Blizzard just updated the Diablo III website with five brand new action-packed screenshots. This sneak peak reveals a towering enemy, some magic spells, and moody fog-filled environments. Considering Blizzard's penchant for painstakingly slow development, clicking on these images will be closest thing to playing the game we'll have for a very long time.

[Via BigDownload]

Gallery: Diablo III

Blizzard orchestral soundtrack CD available in November

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 27th 2008 at 4:00PM }

Australian-based Eminence Symphony Orchestra is releasing a two-disc compilation of Blizzard Entertainment's best known symphonic pieces. The album, called Echoes of War, covers music from the Diablo, StarCraft and WarCraft universes -- sorry, Lost Vikings fans.

The box set, which features 90 minutes of music, will cost $30 and release in mid-November. There's also an orange Legendary Edition with an extra DVD, featuring a making-of featurette and other dross supporting material for $50. Good peons will find the CD's full track list after the break. Zug-zug.

[Thanks, Jayson; Via OSV]

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