I'm surprised no one is talking about it here, but hot damn, Diablo III sure looks pretty nifty.
I never got into Diablo II much at all, and probably won't get this game (Hack 'n slash RPG's are really not my type of game), but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the artwork and detail that Blizzard put into this game. Just watching this 20 minute gameplay footage, you get to see some of really small details which are really cool (like things falling off the ledge when you hit the wall hard etc). The art style and 3D is amazing. I thought Blizzard had a mass exodus of key people a few years ago? It certainly hasn't hurt them.
Fans petition against Diablo III art style?!
What the? They're saying it looks too colourful and cartoonish (like World of Warcraft) and not dark enough like Diablo II :/
http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/07/diablo_fans_petition_against_dia…
I'm a bit perplexed, since I am totally diggin the art style. WOW is pretty cartoony with hand painted textures and the design of the models, but I wouldn't say this game is in that style at all.
This probably goes back to the "where's the colour" issue, but I'm starting to think that gamers really do just want dark games in shades of brown and grey.
Here are some photoshops from the petition..
http://i32.tinypic.com/2zqr9yx.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/2jexp1x.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/vep6ix.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l318/frostwake/Diablo32.jpg
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l318/frostwake/Diablo31.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1681/1214657022122wu5oq6.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7807/itshouldrh5.jpg
http://img180.imageshack.us/my.php?image=makeluvnotwarcraftzs3.jpg
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/6065/howitshouldlooklikevx5.jpg
To me it looks like they just wanna do away with all the coloured lighting, increase the contrast, decrease the saturation a heck of a lot, and then throw in some grainy video processing on top.
Screw them I'm liking it
For what it is as it is, we need games with their own style and direction to offset the strive for photo-realism herd.
And I have no interest in what some noob does with 5 seconds of sharpen + noise. Photomanip and I'd possibly listen, but they didn't really re-texture the screenshots in any real way.
I like the fact that they didn't hype up the game in the presentation of gameplay and gave a good this is simply it, how we are taking diablo further, hope you like it honest guy approach.
The community needs to shut up on this one and appreciate its beauty. This comes from a critical gamer who usually finds ways of being readily bored with the majority of titles and sees nothing but faults. >.> I particularly grew to despise WoW rapidly and most of the titles I own from other companies are gathering dust and scratches.
But this peaked my interest.
Idiots
These people are morons, as if the colour is going to somehow effect gameplay. Half the reason the original Diablo's looked so gritty was due to low res graphics and low colour depth. I'm starting to think people really dont want anything slightly different, just the same crap over and over.
I bet developers find it depressing when this is the sort of shit their community comes up with, whiny nit-picking. I suppose to placate the whingers they could just add some sort of colour-desaturation post process effect and let whoever wants it, switch it on.
I'm totally pumped for this
I'm totally pumped for this game. Big d2 fan and think d3 looks really good. The art style is great, honestly I don't get what all the whining is about. One of the advantages of blizzard games is they've always run very well on low end pc's, when you consider how few polygons go into each WoW model it looks pretty darn impressive. This one will be no differnt.
Can't wait :D
Kotaku had a recent news
Kotaku had a recent news item showing some new screens from "This is Vegas" which shows off some colours in a real world game.
http://kotaku.com/5021662/new-this-is-vegas-screen-shots-display-a-dist…
Granted, the game is based in Vegas, so they pretty much really need to have things bright and colourful, but it's good to see some colour around! I mean really, do Diablo fans really want this??
http://i27.tinypic.com/2jexp1x.jpg
To me, the after picture is pretty much just monochrome. Anyway, the murmurs and guesstimates around the internets are that the levels shown off in the demo are one of the earlier levels in the game. The more hellish levels and darker levels are presumably less colourful and more drab.
Speaking of things that are colourful..
I remember a similar uproar
I remember a similar uproar about a game's art design not that long ago, but I'm struggling to recall what it was. Oh that's right - the Duke Nukem Forever teaser thingo that came out last year ... granted it did look rather drab. I wonder if it's becoming a problem for developers that supposed 'fans' (read : army of whingers) are very willing to generate negative press before a game has even been released.
diablo 3
i bought the diable battle chest last week (diablo,diablo2,diablo lord of destruction expansion)... and although i think diablo 3 looks f***ing awsome .. i was one of those whingey dudes.. who voted it should be a tad darker... and be more in tune with older versions...
i really liked the whole lighting around the character thing ...
i dont really care that much though.... would only be a lighting change... not like it would set them back 2 years in production or anything..
i think it looks awesome and cant wait to play it..
I think it looks great as it
I think it looks great as it is. Any attempt to darken it will only serve to make it more generic. I agree with the designers at Blizzard, dull looking games are boring to play.
That said, they did say in an interview that there would be a large variety of areas in the game, including some darker areas.
The End.
Diablo III Art Director has quit
http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/08/diablo_iii_art_director_quits_ga…
http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/08/blizzard_looking_for_new_diablo_…
The Art Director has quit, but it looks like he was interested in pursuing his own (non-game related) start up rather than because of fan based backlash on the Diablo III art style. Previous to this, Blizzard said they're happy with the colourful art style and don't plan on changing it.
It looks great. I played
It looks great.
I played Diablo but didn't get into Diablo 2.
I'll be getting this one for sure.
Folks should just get over
Folks should just get over themselves. The game world looks amazing and unbelievably detailed. Totally works for me as a Diablo Fanboi
Yeah this looks great, I do play Diablo and Diablo2 occasionally and a few other Hack and slash rpgs like Dungeon siege so I'll definitely give this a try.