Diablo Junkie

As I’m downloading Hellgate London’s demo, I’m reading some of the reviews out there. Of course, some like the game more than others. However, all of them agree the game was rushed and that some of the bugs are making it near impossible to have a normal one-hour gaming session.

The game comes from the team who did Diablo II so naturally the expectation are running high!

Gamespot haven’t reviewed it yet but here’s a few bits from other reviews:

Besides the simple fact that no map generation program is ever going to be as good as a human designer, the random maps introduce some other problems too…

That same room layout, that same pair of tunnels, repeated over and over in slightly different configurations… We don’t doubt that Underground tunnels really are quite monotonous, but there’s no need to inflict that on us in a videogame. It’s bad enough having to go through them in packed train carriages, frankly…

Each of the six classes is genuinely fun to play, which is rare enough in RPGs. Most players will probably settle on their preferred archetype pretty quickly, of course, but it’s definitely good to see a game where you can roll just about any class, and be fairly confident that you won’t be coming back to restart in disgust a few hours later.

That’s from Eurogamer giving it 7 out of 10. The user reviews are equally split, there’s some guys that couldn’t play for more than 15 minutes without restarting which naturally got frustrating pretty quickly.

Oh well, I’ll be playing the demo anyway. The question remains whether I want the game as well.

Remember when just before Starcraft 2 was announced, there was a rumor about a Medusa demo.

Some people thought it could be something related to Diablo 3 (I wish!). The mystery is over - courtesy of Kotaku:

Sigaty, Starcraft 2’s lead producer, told me that the original codename for Starcraft 2 was “alpha”, but when the game was nearing alpha they decided to change it.

“We couldn’t say that alpha was hitting alpha, so we needed another name,” he said. They settled on Medusa.

This isn’t another Diablo 3 rumor. It’s just setting the record straight!

I’ve been thinking lately about the new content that Blizzard added to Diablo 2 with the Pandemonium Event (i.e. the Diablo 2 Ubers).

I’ve heard many arguments that it’s not REALLY new content as Blizzard have just taken a few bosses and made their uber versions. For example, they’ve used Andariel’s model to create Lilith who shares very similar spells and effects.

Diablo has become uber Diablo, gaining a a few extra hitpoints. Same goes for the other bosses (Mephisto and Baal) as well as the lieutenants (Duriel and Izual).

That is one way to look at it. However, lets turn to the year(s) preceding World of Warcraft’s launch. Blizzard created a special “custom” campaign (The Founding of Durotar) for Warcraft III that used the game engine BUT simulated WoW in terms of gameplay. The quest structure, the items (epic, legendary, etc), even the levelling.

Come to think of it, I might have enjoyed the campaign MORE than I have enjoyed WoW. You could control three heroes plus summoned creatures and henchmen, the quests made sense (i.e. not repetitive), and the items were pretty powerful.

That’s not my point though. My point is that what Blizzard has done with patch 1.11 is test the realms for the style of gameplay that their next-gen MMO (lets call it Diablo III: Heaven and Hell) will feature.

This looks a long shot now but come back in a year and we’ll see. I definitely think Blizzard’s next-gen MMO should feature top SOLO content in addition to raid content.

I do expect to kill Diablo even as a casual SOLO player. Surviving the fight might be a 10% chance and loot might be just a few greens but I’d like to see Diablo go down. Amen.

Well, to be totally honest with you - it was confirmed and then the confirmation was removed from the site. So where does that leave us? I guess it’s the usual secrecy surrounding any Blizz project.

Here’s the LONG story:

The guys from Legendary Pictures (yep, the guys behind 300) have posted on their site that a Diablo movie is in the making. Diablo was listed in the “In Development” section.

Once the news about the movie leaked to fan sites, Diablo was promptly removed. My guess is it was a phone call from Blizzard that got them going.

Besides these facts, we have the following:

1. Legendary Pictures are already working on a WoW-based movie, so they look like an obvious choice for a Blizzard project.
2. Vin Diesel’s movie - A Man Apart - was originally named El Diablo which resulted in a lawsuit from Blizzard “claiming they trademarked Diablo and intended to make a movie based on their game”

I’m hoping and praying a Diablo movie is in the making. I loved the Diablo 2 cinematics and making the next logical step - the big screen - will be an amazing experience.

Update: Ha! Look at this. I just checked who the owner of this domain is!

Domain Name: DIABLOMOVIE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Universal City Studios - UPG Domains
100 Universal City Plaza
2160/8H
Universal City, CA 91608
US

Gamespot’s coverage of Starcraft 2 has been spot on. At the same time, IGN has got it wrong before when it comes to Diablo 3, so I take these articles with a grain of salt.

In essence, Rob Pardo talks how Starcraft 2 is one of the smaller projects currently in Blizzard:

Pardo also dropped a hint at the scale of Blizzard’s future plans, saying that the 40 developers working on Starcraft II are “one of the smaller teams.” Job listings on the Blizzard site have indicated it is working on a “next-gen MMO”–which the company said will not be another World of Warcraft. Also, rumors persist that Diablo III is in development.

Now, Paul Sams also said something similar - that Blizzard is working on three projects.

Here’s how I interpret it - Diablo 3 and the next-gen MMO are probably the same thing. After all, what’s better than a MMO in the Diablo universe? You got Heaven and Hell as factions… you got an Epic conflict that’s going to dwarf everything that WoW has. Frankly, who cares about Illidan when the can go after Diablo.

It’s the 19th already. In Korea it’s still the 18th though. There are less than 24 hours to Blizzard’s major product announcement.

The only information that has leaked so far is that they’re going to do a “Medusa demo”. Is this a new game engine? There’s a Medusa item in Diablo 2… but I’m not too optimistic about the new product being Diablo 3. Why?

For starters, Blizzard are making the announcement in Korea. Korea is the Starcraft heaven. If Blizzard announce anything but Starcraft, they might get shot at!

Second, Diablo (1996) has got its Diablo 2 sequel (2000) and the LoD expansion (2001). Starcraft has been sequel-less since 1998.

Last but not least, it seems that ALL of Blizzard’s executives have mentioned Starcraft 2 in one way or another.

So my bets are as follows:

A Starcraft game - 90%
A Diablo game - 9%
Anything else - 1%

My eyes are sore from all the reloading and staring at Blizzard’s new front page!

I’m attaching a snapshot below (click to zoom) in case they decide to remove it.

I’m really hoping Blizzard will announce Diablo 3 on the 18th. It was only a few days ago that everyone was convinced they were going to announce Starcraft 2 in Korea.

Update: How cruel of Blizzard! I’ve asked several people to check the site, they were all seeing Diablo. Now, I go to a wow site and they’re claiming it’s all about warcraft. And they have this image to prove it.

I guess Blizzard is rotating the image every hour or doing some other voodoo just to ensure everyone gets they want!