Diablo Junkie

Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.

Blizzard shows off the first trailer and gameplay of its latest dungeon crawler, and we’ve got the first look.The Barbarian sees, and the Barbarian smashes. The Witch Doctor sees, and usually let’s something else do his dirty work. The two character classes shown off during today’s announcement of Diablo III….

At the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, presented a rundown of the design philosophy behind the game, covering its origins, the game’s approachability, and the design team’s “better gameplay, less carpal tunnel” approach.”

Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational 2008 starts in half an hour in Paris. If you can check the intro image – there’s a dark shape that is more and more visible.

UPDATE: Diablo 3 is OFFICIAL! Live news from the event:

12:15 — Announcement…..!! Guy playing Diablo music on an acoustic guitar…

12:18 — Footage of large scale battles, comets streaking across the sky, demons, Diablo 3 officially announced.

12:20 — Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo 3 coming out. He’s going to demo the game.

12:20 — It’s apparently still an action RPG. Same interface — red
health and blue orbs. Skill bar at bottom. 3/4 overhead perspective.
Character with 2 axes hacking at demons in what appears to be a foggy
cathedral. Has a jumping attack where he smashes the two axes into the
ground.

(Watch Diablo 3 trailer here)

12:21 — The axe guy is the barbarian class. Says improvements have
been made, like the hotbar for skills. Using the mouse wheel and tab
key you can quickly switch between skills. Whoing inventory. Appears to
still have slot limits. Using enchanted axes with frost and lighting
,which stuns and freezes opponents.

12:25 — Each piece of gear is custom designed for each class. Barbarian puts on demonic sort of garb with giant devil horns. Barbarian can hop across gaps on the map. Barbarian dislodged a rock wall and dropped it on zombies, killing them. Demoing moving whirlwind attack.

12:33 — Witch doctor can cast out locus swarm, which spreads between targets and deals damage. Can summon mongrel things that he can cast locust swarm on, which buffs their damage. Outdoor environment now. Quite pretty in that vibrant, slightly cartoonish Blizzard graphical style. Like with StarCraft 2 and it’s similarities to the original, Diablo 3 looks and sounds, at least at a glance, quite similar to previous games. Witch doctor also has a mass fear type of ability.

12:36 — Multiplayer will work over battle.net. Heads into a final fight against some gigantic moving trees. Final boss here, called siegebreaker assault beast, is absolutely gigantic, maybe around six or seven times taller than the player characters.

12:37 — Demo ends. The crowd roars…

Blizzard has opened the floodgates! A few dozen screenshots have been released thus far and here’s the ones that I found most interesting. Be sure to check the official Diablo 3 announcement too.

The Barbarian hacking through skeletons. Note the duel-wield.

The Witch Doctor and his mass-effect spells. I guess he’s the new Sorceress!

This is a close-up of the armor. Note the level of details. It looks proper 3D.

It’s the Witch Doctor again. Note the depth of the level. It looks pre-rendered but it’s certainly beautiful.

Enter the Boss! It looks five times bigger than the character!

This is the demo that was given during the Diablo 3 announcement in Paris.

You can download the high-quality gameplay footage here. Check out the Diablo 3 screenshots too.

Updated (June 28): Finally, Diablo 3 is announced and here’s the Diablo 3 trailer!

You can download the high-quality version here.

Blizzard has launched an official Diablo 3 forum at Battle.net. Just click here (no posting allowed yet).

You can check a screenshot below:

Let’s hope and pray there’s a Diablo 3 announcement at the WWI.

This weekend, Blizzard’s 2008 Worldwide Invitational kicks off in Paris, France, and it will host the official unveiling of Diablo III. Why do we state it so confidently? Behold these reasons five….

Diablo fan website DiabloII.net reports that Blizzard will indeed announce Diablo III this weekend at the company’s Worldwide Invitational in Paris. Nerds unleash!