Blizzard's World Wide Invitational event is currently under way in Paris; while we're still waiting for the formal announcement diablo.com is now redirecting to a neat Diablo 3 splash page, which links toa Diablo 3 home page which is currently 404ing.

Update: the official site is now up!

Screenshots are available locally and we'll have the trailers up soon, as soon as Blizzard's el cheapo downloader decides to kick in.

Update #2: The trailers are now available locally! There's a cinematic trailer, an artwork trailer, and a gameplay trailer.

Here's the feature list from the official site:

* Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary – the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.
* Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past: such as the fierce Barbarian.
* Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage - all powered by the Havoc physics system.
* Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier – and cooperative gameplay more fun.

Check out the official FAQ for more details.

Update #3: the gameplay trailer is now also available.

i'm watching the trailer at the moment. They are showing off the barbarian character, looks very similar to diablo2 which i luv. very dark, mysterious, murky, dungeon looking. even tho its only "a working progress" it does look very polished.

apparently a big thing is the interaction with the environment, looks like a lot of it is destroyable.

now they are showing the witch docter, similar to necro, posions, scary pets, fear stuff. plus there are female versions of all the characters.


last edited by Jabroney at 20:35:17 28/Jun/08

last edited by Jabroney at 20:36:18 28/Jun/08

Witch doctor = new necromancer? gay.

I wonder if there'll be as much clicking in this one

Looks like the gameplay hasn't changed much, which is consistent for blizzard. Not really worth getting hyped up over, it probably won't be out until '09 or later I think?

At least it's not an MMO!


Or at least it hasn't been announced to have a subscription model, yet!

Website is up, but some/most of the links aren't up yet. There is a movie though.

Hmm, the movie download link is a bittorrent client, i guess blizzard uses torrents for everything now

click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click

Although, I did enjoy both Diablo's.
However I use to play them with my Brother, as we no longer live in the same house I dont think it will be the same solo.

It looks hand-drawn (and freakin' amazing!)

really appreciate you guys hosting the files this late in this evening, on a saturday
hope you're getting paid :)

The gameplay trailer is 800mb and the downloader refuses to do dick with it. Seriously Blizzard, get over BitTorrent, it's not all that, especially when hundreds of people will help you out mirroring it.

Ooer well the artwork and cinematics look pretty rad, looking forward to seeing the gameplay trailer!

Ok the gameplay trailer is awesome. If you haven't got it yet then you're doing it wrong or your ISP is throttling you. Pick one.

I think i may have creamed my pants.

this has the gameplay trailer, anyway u can get it from here?
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/19701

You only clicked a lot if you were noob

ps. Diablo 2 1.12a released about a week ago has no-cd built in

last edited by Obes at 22:17:49 28/Jun/08

If you haven't got it yet then you're doing it wrong or your ISP is throttling you. Pick one.

I'm trying it on three separate networks with at least 1x GB link and its not working. BT downloader sucks. I have no idea how you managed to get it but consider yourself a rare and unique snowflake and go and by lotto now!@#!@#

My index finger feels sore in anticipation.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh DIABLO 3!!!!! XD

never played the first 2, but this looks awsome.

never played the first 2, but this looks awsome

go out, buy diablo 2, and join the online sensation before we all murder you

Or at least it hasn't been announced to have a subscription model, yet!

It's b.net so you can pretty much guarantee it's not going to be monthly pay

im watching the developers commentary atm, they have said so far that they are reducing the amount of mouse spamming, carpal tunnel, system.

as well as this, potions are gone, they are using a hotbar with ur skills on it. not much explained on it, but its gonna reduce downtime. apparently the monsters drop health too.

its gonna have some pvp competitive system too, but they arent touching on that yet.

Lol, you all fell for it, the real news is "World of Duty", you start as a lvl 1 grunt and try not to die until you level up. Problem is at the end of each level you die from mustard gas, dont worry there will be a patch, but we are waiting for offical support in the form of a working standalone server.

(sigh)

OMG, awesome neews. Obes was only just bitching to me about there being no D3 game.

Lol, you all fell for it, the real news is "World of Duty", you start as a lvl 1 grunt and try not to die until you level up. Problem is at the end of each level you die from mustard gas, dont worry there will be a patch, but we are waiting for offical support in the form of a working standalone server.

HOW DO I GIVE THEM MY MONEY! Preferably in the form of a recurring monthly payment

3 words about sums this announcement up. f***ING EPIC WIN

Now this is worth waiting for..f*** wow..f*** AOC..f*** COD4.. this will be the game to play..

^^ amen

Between this and Fallout 3, I'll have many hours of gaming goodness ahead.

s*** yeah!

The artwork in those screenies looks f***ing awesome. Cant wait!

Note: I just updated the cinematic trailer with a newer slightly more high-res version if you want to redownload it.

lovin the monster at end of gameplay video and it's decapitation by chewing.. ahah

goddammit i know its not ur fault, but i want this gameplay trailer, i need GA to host it tho, getting close to cap.

gameplay trailer is now available too

thanks trog, blizzard downloader for the gameplay trailer is sitting at 0 and refusing to move :o

Edit: Link reads as 569 MB, is it still being uploaded? Or a diff version of the file?

last edited by icewyrm at 01:01:58 29/Jun/08

gameplay video - http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/19701

Edit: Link reads as 569 MB, is it still being uploaded? Or a diff version of the file?

Yeh its the Euro one - not sure why its smaller but its the same thing (apparently). I'll get the US one if their POS downloader ever starts working (prolly tomorrow tho)

By then, the dolts at Blizz US might have fixed the fact that the source file is offline.

Even with the raw torrent through any BT client will show - 1000s of peers at 0% and no seed.

I loved watching the gameplay trailer. I expected it to be months before we would see anything like that. Nice work there blizzard. By god I will upgrade my pc now for sure to be able to play this epic game. Add another game to my "Must Have list" along with starcraft 2 and rock band

diablo 3 rulz!!!!
cant wait to play it.
and remember blizzard is relising starcraft2 this year. :)

Ah, we had the Havoc guys in at work last week doing a demonstration and when asked what games were in the pipeline that were using Havoc they said there was a really massive one that they couldn't talk about because it wasn't announced yet. I guess this was it :P

Should be sweet, though the whole bait and switch they pulled with their teaser is pretty dodgy.

Quick everyone, buy shares in Logitech!

Loved D1 and D2 single player.

I will buy D3 purely because it's single player goodness will rock, it's impossible for this game to let me down.

I just want typical Diablo s***... cool level design, haeps of monsters (MINUS THOSE f***ING "FALLENS"), awesome weapons and spells... and lots of clicking.

im not as excited about this as i thought i would of been after watching the gameplay videos and getting a look at the art style they are going for.

i was also hoping that blizzard migh come out with something new and refreshing.

either way ill probably buy it and enjoy it.

when those slimey things exploded and then makes heaps more little slimey things..i can see that becoming a chugg fest when there's multiple of those things exploding and that..was like that in D2 when you had to goto the hell part..


Makes me wanna install D2 now..

I know it's good business to make sequels, even if the first one sucked already having an established name means it's easier to market the second but I'm getting sick of seeing numbers after game titles.

I'm not saying that Diablo 3 will be bad, it's just not my style of game and I'm sure the people who enjoyed the first two will be like pigs in s*** playing this one. In fact, I'll probably play and enjoy SC2 because I like RTS games but I was hoping that, what must be the most financially secure games developer in the world wouldn't stick to the safe practice of rehashing old stuff. I want to be able to get excited about something new for once, unnecessary sequels are killing the movie industry and I think in the long run the same will be said for games.

Bah, if they want to make a radically new game, do it under a different franchise.

D2 was an awesome improvement over D1 even though the changes were very slight.

If they do the same with D3, I couldn't be happier. Give me a new story, flashy new visuals, tweak the gameplay and some sweet new classes/weapons/spells... I'm sold.

well from the gameplay vid..you are able to move more stuff, the spells looks heaps cooler as do the sfx..

Only downer is the graphics have a wow feel to it..

Quick everyone, buy shares in Logitech!

5'd... hahahah gold

I want to be able to get excited about something new for once, unnecessary sequels are killing the movie industry and I think in the long run the same will be said for games.

The next Civ game should be either like the Sims or an FPS, just to avoid playing it safe.

another downer with diablo.. D2 wont work with vista ultimate..there goes my weekends..

Just watched the game play vid. I likey.

I've never played Diablo, but I'll probably be getting this, the gameplay video looked pretty cool.

O M G

i cannot wait!@$!%

I've never played Diablo, but I'll probably be getting this, the gameplay video looked pretty cool.

/beats Midda with rods

Do yourself a favour & play through DII mate - you'll love it & set yourself up for this one...

I'm sure the people who enjoyed the first two will be like pigs in s*** playing this one

I loved D1 & D2+LOD but for some reason D3 didn't make me all sqiugy and funny in the pants like I thought it would. I just can't quite put my finger on it but when watching the vids and reading up on it, I just don't feel that much excitement for D3 to want to rush out and get it as soon as it's available.

The one thing I can't wait to see is how they make Diablo look this time..

The one thing I can't wait to see is how they make Diablo look this time..

I just can't wait for the bosses in general :)

Nothing beats setting up TP's and stocking your potions only to end up running in circles to avoid getting killed.

Diablo bosses have never dissapointed.

good thing now is..you dont have potions anymore..no more having multiple belts bull of XL health and XL mana.. aha

diablo 2 is that old, i remember people playing it at the same QGL lans as quake3 on picmip 16.

casa, pretty sure you were one of them.. ha

another downer with diablo.. D2 wont work with vista ultimate..there goes my weekends..

What? I must test this.

Edit: Just tried it, worked fine after I installed the 1.12a patch. Did you already try that?

last edited by icewyrm at 17:00:04 29/Jun/08

i installed it..went to load game and it came up saying D2 & vista have compatiballity issues...

Just run it anyway, after patching. It should work fine.

i tried to..but just went to a black screen..then i had to crl alt del..

gotta try and find my LoD cd aswell..

last edited by Damo at 17:21:43 29/Jun/08

First time I ran it, it "blackscreened" too - it just wasn't playing the movie. I just clicked through the movies and it started up. Oh well, good luck with it I guess. Don't particularly feel like playing d2 again myself.

I tried to play through D2 again, but the 800x600 res burned my eyes.

My Fista PC runs diablo fine. It just takes 5 mins to actuall start but once in the game it's fine.

i'm just as interested as to where they're going to go story wise

Blizzard sure do know how to make a good game trailer...

Blizzard sure do know how to make a good game trailer...

f***ing Ey!

any rumors on release date. my guess late 2009

fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap

hahahaha war-fac:P
I still remember when I'd play D2 at our clans CS LAN's during the quiet times and you and methz would give me s*** for it.... Then yas got into it and wouldn't stop playing:P

i just hope its not "click to move", although i played both first and second (and expansion) i played at that stage, much more quake 3, so when WoW came along and you could wander around in 3rd person freelooking and mashing skills, i was really happy with its setup.

BUT: i missed storylines, i missed setting up a lan with 4-6 people with everyone able to actually play together as friends, even if it was their first time or were finished on hell.

So, i'm looking forward to it, it looks... not exactly 'pretty' yet, but certainly nice compared to the 800x600 d2 engine, and it certainly looks like skills arent a bitch to use..

i can see this taking up hundreds of hours, but if its successfull, it will probably take thousands :)

Made me fire up diablo 2 again ...

imo Thanksgiving 09 at the very earliest, but it will probably get pushed back.

I see there is a Mac client in the works. Does this mean the game can run on opengl instead of directx? I dont see why a Linux client shouldn't be possible if this is the case.

I'll need a new ALT key too ;(

f*** yeh!

Does this mean the game can run on opengl instead of directx?

I thought that's what tghe commandline -opengl did ?

Definately looking forward to this game. Loved playing through the first 2. I'm not too keen on them ditching potions and replacing them with the health balls dropping off mobs.

I can see now all the 12 year olds thinking its cool to run around stealing them all when they're on 95% health while you're getting the s*** beaten out of you and you actually need it.

as long as they dont keep making the corpses disappear like in the current vids... thats pretty lame... gotta keep them there for sense of accomplishment.

^
Well if it was still in the final release and people made a big enough fuss about it maybe Blizzard would patch the game to keep corpses on screen?
Either that or someone could make a little mod to do that, although it wouldn't really work for multiplayer unless Blizzard did it in an official patch.

MAN Blizzard know how to make a good trailer, Time and time again they impress me ...
lets hope the gameplay is as good as that

lets hope the gameplay is as good as that

You did watch the gameplay video right?

lets hope the gameplay is as good as that

that = diablo2?

clickity mc f***ing click

f*** yes, looks awesome

gameplay trailer is down, darnit.

gameplay trailer is down, darnit.

well download it from ausgamers?

looks brilliant. i didnt get into d2 because of all the cheating issues with battle.net

but if they fix that, put in some good co-op, then we will have a very fun game on our hands...

i was referring to ausgamers. it was denying before.

does ausgamers have a 2 file simultaneous download limit, because i was grabbing the first two when I tried to access this one?

what cheating issues were there on battle net?

I'm guessing he was a scrub who used to play on Open BattleNet.

On closed BattleNet, I never came across any hacking, which was awesome.

does ausgamers have a 2 file simultaneous download limit

yup
well... two connection limit technically

Diablo2 now has warden ... doesn't totally stop cheats but makes their life a little more difficult.

They better have Hardcore mode (i.e. 1 death and your character is permanently gone).

That's what took Diablo 2 from awesome to f***ing brilliant in multiplayer, increasing the challenge.

I have added a bunch of new screenshots to the screenshots page as well. Some really sweet ones in this new batch. Most of them appear at the top.

they have the barb pegged as a new character? or is that just what they are willing to show off at the moment, one newy and one oldie?

yeah open battle net ofcourse you're going to get hax, i never came across any on closed battle net

last edited by paveway at 15:53:10 30/Jun/08

yea i fkn hope they have hardcore. there was nothing more satisfying then pking a level 90+ character

hydra + tp ftw :-p

yeah back in the D1 days, it was hacked terribly. with lots of people walking around with spare sets of armour of the whale (however you spell it)

it might be fixed now, but that was why i did stay away from dII

Some changes that people have made to make it have more of a gothic feel..

http://i27.tinypic.com/2jexp1x.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/vep6ix.jpg

http://i31.tinypic.com/2zta5o7.jpg

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1681/1214657022122wu5oq6.jpg

haha @ those last two images; whiney mcfanboys already making noise.

True story: I played Diablo 2 exactly once for a total of no more than 20 minutes or so before I went back to playing Quake.

looking forward to this now :)

^ so im guessing trog didn't like d2????~

Hahaha, I'm glad it doesn't look like how it 'should' look, because those 'should' pictures look like ass. They're like washed out, boring versions of how it really looks.

Why do they want it to look s***tier?

^ so im guessing trog didn't like d2????~

no u idiot, he completed the entire game in 20minutes, dont u know who TROG IS!

poogay, the health bubbles heal the entire party

it does not matter who steps on them, it will regenerate everyones health. was confirmed in the dev panel and on a few websites with interviews.

you can still use potions, but the health bubbles just mean there is more incentive to be in the thick of the action, and not to go to town for potions as much

oh..i thought there werent potions at all..

Some changes that people have made to make it have more of a gothic feel..

The "improvements" actually look better.

Less like WoW and more evil = win.

BTW anyone who decides to start d2 up again ...

The offical 1.12a patch has no cd built in (just copy the video and music mpqs). They also issued a ladder reset.

The RRM "Red Rune Mod" and RWM "RuneWords" Mod esential adds the BattleNet Runewords recipes to single player and non battlenet multiplayer. Both along with instuctions can be found here. (It says its 1.11, but 1.11 and 1.12 are very very similar)

But given how old it was I found it strangely sluggish in its feel.
First, Always play in multiplayer even if its only just you (aparently single player limits you, Something to do with how it "thinks").
Secondly the direct3D implementation is pathetic.
You can disable it by starting with the -w commandline (window mode) or by playing in directdraw (but it reduces the pretties).

Then I found GLIDE3-to-OpenGL-Wrapper Version 1.4b ... Pretty awesome.

For several reasons.
Firstly direct3D in diablo2 smashes the real framerate. This fixes that (lame that a wrapper to openGL does better then direct3D calls)
Glide is as "pretty" as direct3D (DirectDraw cuts features)

Also because it will actually scale it to your current resolution (because in certain situations nvidia fixed ratio scaling seems to balls up.

For my 8800gtx, 8800gt and my laptop with a 7300 go.
All I did was copy the glide wrapped to my d2 directory, then configured 3 screens.
Settings
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/9343/settings2at3.jpg
Renderer
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/9602/rendererux3.jpg
Extensions
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7450/extensionsrv4.jpg

YMMV etc etc etc


also

True story: I played Diablo 2 exactly once for a total of no more than 20 minutes or so before I went back to playing Quake.

You had long since stopped playing Quake by the time Diablo 2 came along ... unless you crazily are trying to refer to a supposed "sequel" to the purity that was Quake

last edited by Obes at 20:22:31 30/Jun/08

haha Jabroney

edit: That wrapper is great Obes, cheers.

last edited by dais at 20:34:34 30/Jun/08

You had long since stopped playing Quake by the time Diablo 2 came along ... unless you crazily are trying to refer to a supposed "sequel" to the purity that was Quake

Actually you're right - I must be thinking of the original Diablo. Haha! I've never even played Diablo 2

D2 was fun except for how annoying it was to clone things

D2 was fun except for how annoying it was

fixed it for ya :D

no u idiot, he completed the entire game in 20minutes, dont u know who TROG IS!

Bahaha that made me laugh alot.. at work out loud.. oh dear..

D2 on lan is quite fun.. hardcore rules etc.. Much roffles

i do wat i can haha

but after diablo2 starts getting a bit dry u can try this out if u want:
its called ironcore:
basically at a lan or wateva, everyone starts different characters, no on is allowed to ally, and no one is allowed to return to town. its quiet fun, but usually gets bogged down at boss fights. pking is encouraged.

Top post Obes - this emulator is nicer than the one I was using previously.

Another tip - if you're running D2 under Vista with a glide wrapper, you'll need to disable Vista Aero Glass. In other words, change your theme to Vista Basic and things will work..

I didn't read that the health balls heal all of the party...it wasn't stated in the gameplay vid so that's alright then.

There'd have to be potions - I dare say it would be pretty tough taking on bigger bosses without quaffing some red, blue and purple..

Loved the death of the barbarian in the gameplay video. :)

Does anyone else find it creepy Obes knows so much about Trog's gaming life?

Also thanks for those tips on D2 Obes .. might give them a go tonight!

holy cow .... 120 comments !!!!

WOW 121 COMMNENTS!?

Man that big ass monster at the end of the gameplay vid..is...big!

I'm a bit like others here. I enjoyed diablo but never played it straight through. The destructible walls etc look pretty neat.

f*** it must be fun working at blizzard. 'Hey guys, were going to release a new game and its 100% positive to sell truck loads, make us even more popular and appeal to 95% of the gaming community''. Not many developers have such confidence in their products.

found this on another site. dunno what hes saying cause i have no sound at work, but it looks like hes playing d3. anyone know if its fake or not?

f*** yeah love diablo

^
more diablo 3 gameplay video less gay fat c*** life stories ><

cant see anything in that post by ravn0s?

man ive got sound and ive got no idea wtf he's talking about.....all i know is...he's got cancer, blizzard contacted him and now he's in on the diablo 3 closed beta...

He talked about the game, some stuff which hasn't been talked about yet..

He's talking about beating his grandpa because he's in hell for stealing something...

i did the glide wrapper, but i cant seem to get it to go a higher res then 800x600, it wont scale to my desktop res.

still cant find my lod cd..have to go buy another copy

It'll still be 800 x 600, but upscaled so it doesn't f*** with yer desktop resolution (which is nuisance if like me, you have two monitors)

dang dude your talking my language i f***ing love diablo ITS AWSOME AS HELL

anyone know if its fake or not?

fake as s***

THanks for that Obes.. Shall have a play with them when I get home tonight!

Like I said YMMV

Diablo 2 on windows can only dfisplay in 640*480 or 800*600, that's the way it's designed. All the wrapper does is wrap glide to openGL.

Well that ... and
If you tick super sample it actually renders it in a viewport 4 times the size then resize it to 800 * 600 then it resamples it back to your current desktop res.
eg. for me that's 1680 * 1050.

nVidia drivers seem to not scale properly if the max refresh at 800*600 is higher then the max refresh at the native res (like the missus's monitor).


ps. Boba said it made his system run like ass.

For me,

• Direct draw ran the best but has no coloured lighting or perspective.
  
• Direct3D which has them runs like absolute s*** even tho it says its running at 60fps (vsync and that's my monitor refresh).
  
• Opengl (via -opengl) seems at best buggy.
  
• Glide with the wrapper runs better then direct3D, is not buggy like opengl and has the coloured lighting and perspective.
  

And that's true on my 8800gtx and 7300go and the fiancee's 8600gts.

I had an issue with Vista but turning off aero theme fixed the problem. Runs fine now ;)

D2 running perfectly now..just hate the 800x600..haha

and i think i lost all my D2 chars..oh noes!!

I couldn't go back to playing it in 800*600, tried once couldn't do it.

Hmm interesting Obes.. would you possibly be able to post a screenie of how it looks on your screen @ 1680x1050 with the super sampling?

Yeh I'm torn at the moment - plugged in an old crt last night to try it out.

800x600 on the crt is just so .. jaggy. Scaled up to 1680x1050 lcd is less jaggy but quite blurry-seeming.

I'm interested in the Obes scaling thing. I would like to know more.

That Glide wrapper thing is bloody awesome Obes.

Works a treat - the D2 dx code must be complete balls to work so badly on modern hardware!

Edit: Also you can get around the Aero problem without needing to manually reset it by choosing 'disable desktop composition' in the compatibility features of the shortcut.

last edited by Hogfather at 19:55:39 05/Jul/08

It looks like 800*600. Well not quite, but pretty much.

i started playing it but quickly remembered how mind numbingly boring it is if you've already finished it... will just have to wait for diablo 3

Edit: Also you can get around the Aero problem without needing to manually reset it by choosing 'disable desktop composition' in the compatibility features of the shortcut.

Cheers for that :)

This Game is badss

NO 1 CAN COMPLETE DIABLE 2 IN 20 MINUTES SO SHUT THE f*** UP!!

^ lols wtf..

Anyway, u c***s got me back into it, started yesterday on uswest. Level 52 meteorb sorc.

Fun fun

f*** craka can you rush me through normal

i'm on us west aswell

still need that rush pavey? lol .. accnt name is Sexecutioner66 hit me up.

Raisty 52 shockadin uswest :)

figured I'd finally try and finish the damn pandemonium quest chain

i haven't been at a computer all weekend apart from when i posted that, i'll add you when i get home tonight

account name is paveway

If you guys need a rush or just want to talk or trade throw me a tell: *theReality UsWest ladder
started a week ago. 85 sorc ;D

i can't remember how to do the friends list adding and talk etc ...

/f add TheReality

/f list - shows your friends
/f remove XYZ - removes friend
/f msg i'm gay - tells everybody who is online on your friends list that, y'know.

go to hell