Diablo III’s Female Monk shown off
Blizzard just keeps slowly dragging us along. They recently release images of the female version of the monk class. Unlike previous games in d3 you can choose a sex. Maybe they are expecting a large amount of female players since world of warcraft became so popular with the ladies. You can go to blizz’s monk page for the flash animated monk lady in all her glory…or just look at the pic.
Subscribe to the comments for this postMonk announced as the 4th class at Blizzcon
The fourth class has been revealed. The monk is a melee class that favors speed over power. The class uses a combo system to inflict close quarters combat damage. The monk is a spiritual class that uses bare hands and body as a weapon.
Skills announced so far:
Tier 1 Skills
- Crippling Wave
- Impenetrable Defense
Tier 2 Skills
- Force Without Thought
- Exploding Palm
- Radiant Visage
Tier 3 Skills
- Seven-Sided Strike
Tier 4 Skills
- Inner Sanctuary
- Way of the Hundred Fists
Gameplay below:
Teen arrested after calling Blizzard and threatening suicide
A 17 year old teen from Fairfield Township, Ohio was arrested Monday when police showed up at his house after a call with a Blizzard entertainment representative about World of Warcraft. The teen told the Blizzard rep “he was suicidal and that the game is the only thing he has to live for”. Apparently he wanted something and the Blizzard rep was not going to allow it (probably got banned). When the police showed up he explained that he did it “to try to get what he wanted for the game”.
All Access Preview: Diablo III gameplay and discussion of abilities auto assignment
Here is a new video from x-play that shows some new gameplay footage, and a interview with Jay Wilson.
Highlights:
- How close is it to completion? Core systems are designed but some big game play announcements are coming.
- Group composition isn’t that important. Every class is a dps class.
- New leveling system. Talk about controversial auto assignment of skills and abilities. They didn’t like how Diablo II had a “right answer” for a skill path.
- Runes allow you to completely change a skill. Runes and loot are what allow you to customize your character.
- Everyone gets their own loot drops. This stops people from fighting over loot.
Jay Wilson interview from 1up.com
Here is an interview from www.1up.com with Jay Wilson. Jay discusses how his style has changed (and stayed the same) since joining the Blizzard team.
Some of the highlights:
- How they develop the classes. They focus on one class at a time and adjust the others as they make changes to the class they are working on.
- Diablo II players could use potions and run faster than monsters so class specific evasion abilities didn’t matter as much. Classes were too generic. They have created enemies that are difficult and each class has specific abilities that allow them to deal with the situations that the enemies create. Diablo is about combat and not crowd control but elements of light crowd control have improved the feel.
- A crafting system or something like it is likely. Rune words are gone so they are definitely replacing that system with some sort of light crafting.
- Legendary items will have a chance at having gem slots. This allows higher level items some diversity.
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1
Diablo III will use battle.net instead of including DRM
- Image via Wikipedia
Executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Rob Pardo says that Blizzard has “no particular plans” to institute DRM verification checks for Diablo III for piracy prevention. He states that their protection is “more similar to Steam than EA”. Great news considering the DRM screw ups we’ve seen lately.
Blizzard’s will use battle.net to stop pirates. If you want to play online you will have to use battle.net. I wonder how they will prevent open source battle.net clones though.
The rune slot system lets you choose how you play your class
Diablo 3’s rune system looks cool. Basically every class has rune slots that allow you to add effects to your class abilities. An example would be the witch doctors flaming skull. With the multi rune the skull bounces and destroys everything in it’s path. This allows you to customize your class and play it in the manner that you want it to be played.
Examples after the jump:
Diablo III’s wizard class with gameplay video and abilities
Mike Morhaime CEO of blizzard introduced players to the new class for Diablo III: the Wizard. Very similar to a mage in World of Wacraft the wizard uses ice, fire and well…explosions. The wizard disturbs the laws of the universe in order to cast spells.
Abilities and gameplay video after the jump.
Diablo III will not be the end of the Diablo universe
Lead designer Jay Wilson had this to say:
We’re not saying this is the end of the ‘Diablo’ universe, but we are trying to bring this storyline to a close. It’s not just ‘Diablo III’ — we’ve got plans beyond.
Wilson also went on to say that characters would be returning from Diablo I, Diablo 2 and some of the books that focus on the universe.
Can’t say I blame them. Diablo is one of the reasons Blizzard is who they are today.
Diablo 3 art director resigns but game look will not change
It has been confirmed that “Diablo III” art director Brian Morrisroe has decided to leave Blizzard. Morrisroe has decided to form a startup company outside of the game industry. Blizzard reps have stated this this will not change the art style of the game or the release date. They posted the job opening on their site this week.
A Blizzard representative told MTV Multiplayer:
Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry), which is why we’ve posted about the open position. This change won’t impact the game…we’re really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.
Some members of the fan community are suspicious of Morrisroe’s timing. There has been a recent pushback from a segment of the Diablo community about the art direction of the new game.