Diablo 3 - "In the home stretch"

Dhruin

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There's a hands-on preview of Diablo III at the NY Times, with the author playing the game for around an hour at Blizzard's offices. The most important takeaway from the article is Jay Wilson saying they are in crunch mode "in the home stretch". Of course, with Blizzard, that could still take a while:
It appears distinctly possible that Diablo could be the first Blizzard franchise to make the leap from PCs to consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but Blizzard isn’t talking about that. Blizzard has also not announced a release date — or year — for Diablo III. But as Mr. Wilson put it: “We’re definitely in the home stretch. We’re crunching. This is when the magic happens.”
More information.
 
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How long has this game been in development? It feels like it's been in the works since the stone age.

Also, I hope it doesn't come out next month. There's already too much I want to play and not enough time to do it for the month of May. :p
 
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I would imagine they are pushing to try and get it out for the holidays, but if it needs more time they won't hesitate to delay it to next year.
 
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"It appears distinctly possible that Diablo could be the first Blizzard franchise to make the leap from PCs to consoles"


Ah, gotta love ignorant reporters:

Warcraft II: The Dark Saga was on both the PS1 & Saturn in 1997
Diablo was on the PS1 in 1998
Starcraft was on the N64 in 2000
Lost Vikings was on both PC and SNES in 1993
Lost Vikings II was on both PC and SNES in 1997
Blackthorne was console only in 1994, then got a mac release in 1996

Then there is poor ole, but exceptionally excellent "Rock n' Roll Racing" {SNES 1993, GEN 1994} that was console only, unless you play it on PC with an emulator...hehe


Anyway... Most of this I knew by heart, some I had to look up, but still...it only took me a few moments!
 
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Game journalists reeeeaaaaaaalllllly want this to go to console it seems. Maybe because none of them play PC games anymore? And when they do review a pc game they most likely just play the xbox version and substitute "gamepad" for "mouse and keyboard" in the article. This of course not including RPGWatch and of the likes of Game Banshee.
 
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Game journalists reeeeaaaaaaalllllly want this to go to console it seems. Maybe because none of them play PC games anymore? And when they do review a pc game they most likely just play the xbox version and substitute "gamepad" for "mouse and keyboard" in the article. This of course not including RPGWatch and of the likes of Game Banshee.

Reviewers are mostly people who grew up on Nintendo and kept playing console games (as are most gamers). On top of that the normal console plus for mainstream gamers, their ease of use, is an even bigger deal to reviewers on a tight time budget.

They're doing the same thing with The Witcher 2, you can't read one damn preview of that game on a multiplatform website that doesn't beg for a console version.
 
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They're doing the same thing with The Witcher 2, you can't read one damn preview of that game on a multiplatform website that doesn't beg for a console version.

And should either Witcher II or Diablo III ever get a console release, they won't look 1/2 as good as the PC version. And I'm sure the reviews would complain about that, asking why...

Its not like a mediocre gaming PC is several thousand anymore. You can get a decent PC for around $600 ~ $800, and seriously after seeing hundreds paying over $3000 on eBay for a PS3 when it launched...its ridiculous that most console gamers think PCs are too expensive!
 
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It's really not that difficult to get a 'console style experience' from a PC either. I have an hdmi cable running out from my PC's video card to my flat screen TV and then I have a wireless receiver for the XBox controller plugged into my PC's USB port so I can run games off my TV just like a console except they look better and run better.

Microsoft built support for the XBox controller on the PC into Windows so as long as the game supports it, which Witcher 2 does, then you can play it with the console style controller and interface.
 
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Reviewers are mostly people who grew up on Nintendo and kept playing console games (as are most gamers). On top of that the normal console plus for mainstream gamers, their ease of use, is an even bigger deal to reviewers on a tight time budget.

They're doing the same thing with The Witcher 2, you can't read one damn preview of that game on a multiplatform website that doesn't beg for a console version.

And that right there is called a double Standard. When a pc gamer asks or pleads for a pc version were called elitist and whiners. Love how that works.
 
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They spent 12 years remaking Starcraft, so it makes sense that this will be out almost 12 years after Diablo 2 :)

I'm hoping they haven't spent all their time watering it down, and that there's still some meat left on the design bone of Bliz - after what we've seen happen in WoW post-launch.
 
Blackthorne was console only in 1994, then got a mac release in 1996

Incorrect. There is a PC port, and I own it.

It has a different name here, though. Here, it's called "Blackhawk".
 
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well they surprise me with the great Starcraft 2 so Diablo 3 could be good though I surely have more love for the Starcraft world and even Warcraft if they made singleplayer games again. plus there are so many action rpgs these day which is the opposite of the huge drought of true RTS games these days. unlike diablo 2 though no collectors edition for me this time, this year my collectors edition is going overboard with the Witcher 2.
 
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