Diablo Junkie

A recent article at Gameriot has made a top 10 list of Diablo 3 environments.

The environments that they like are: deserts and wastelands, forests, ancient ruins, and corrupted regions. They didn’t like Hell (Act IV) and think it was done in a hurry with only two waypoints.

I tend to agree - Act IV seems a bit dull compared to the others. However, my list of worst environments is easily topped by the jungles of Kurast! The pygmies were a NIGHTMARE for my Ice Sorceress!

Environmental Damage

The official site updated with new screens plus more screens!

The guys at Joystiq are going over their first Diablo 3 multiplayer experience during Blizzcon.

The quality of the video is way better that most I’ve seen. You need to wait a bit for the multiplayer gameplay to start (at 3:08). The party is complete with all three Diablo 3 characters: Wizard, Barbarian and Witch Doctor.

The only complaint was that the screen was a bit overwhelmed with all the special effects:

The only negative thing we could see was the messy screens you’d get when playing in a party. If you have a Witch Doctor in your group casting Locust Swarm, and a ton of enemies are massing around your group, you’ll start frantically clicking at any and everything on screen.

Check out the Skeleton King fight at the end! I’m still not sure if the Wizard managed to kill it… I guess not.

MTV's video tour of Blizzard's Headquarters (Page 1) - News and Updates - Diablo 3 Community - The Diablo III Community and Forum for all your Diablo 3 Needs!

You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced $100 for Starcraft 2 will make Blizzard sit comfortably on its huge pile of cash.

Think again. They are now thinking of “monetizing” the new version of Battle.net.

Initially, I thought “oh, we had banner ads in battle.net before, no problem”. Here’s from the horse’s mouth (Rob Pardo interview):

So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?

Wow, that’s an evil way of putting it. Julian’s turning into a business guy on me. Here’s the way I would put it. We’re definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game…

With Battle.Net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money… I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want.

OK, that’s a relief: Diablo 3 isn’t a subscription game; changing your name to GobbleCoque is going to cost $29.

However, I still get a bit suspicious of Blizzard’s “innovation” when it comes to pricing. After Starcraft 2 is split into three separate games we need to purchase separately, I wonder if Diablo 3 is going to be the same way.

Purchase Acts I and II for $49 and then shell more money for Acts III, IV and V which are entirely optional. Optional in the sense you option OUT of all the end-game bosses, equipment, etc.

Bashiok answers a few questions people at Battle.net forums had after BlizzCon 2008 was over

He tried to download a copy of Diablo II from their digital store, but the download didn't work. Blizzard's customer service then tried to download it again — which also didn't work. Finally, they told him to buy it at an actual store — which he did. Now he's bought the game three times and would like some money back.

SC2 will be released as a trilogy