Diablo 3 - Preview @ Eurogamer

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SasqWatch
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'More' Diablo 3 news in the form of a 3 page preview at Eurogamer, by Oli Welsh.
Diablo III is more. More action, more death, more skills, more colour, more story, more beauty, more top-down, click-hungry, loot-happy, fast-paced, over-the-top, randomly-generated, fantasy-horror slaughter. Eight years after the last instalment in Blizzard's classic action-RPG series - probably ten, by the time it comes out - Diablo III is more of the same. Beneath the waves of excitement generated by its return - in the form of twenty stunning minutes of game footage - there is the slightest undertow of anti-climax. Is 'more of the same' really all there is to it?
Blizzard's chief design guru, Rob Pardo - formerly lead designer on World of Warcraft - argues that traditionalism can't really be a sin when no-one else is upholding the tradition. "If there were a ton of games out in the market that are the isometric action-RPG model, then we probably would have more seriously done a different approach," he says, pointing out that two Blizzard "splinter groups" - Flagship and ArenaNet - have already chosen to take "Diabloesque" gameplay in new directions with Hellgate: London and Guild Wars. "But it just always amazes me, with a game series that's as successful as Diablo's been, that I don't feel like there's a lot of great competing games in that same genre."
More information.
 
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Oh WoW...this guy comes across as seriously deluded and arrogant...towit

"But it just always amazes me, with a game series that's as successful as Diablo's been, that I don't feel like there's a lot of great competing games in that same genre."

Erm. Has he been in a fairy-induced coma for the last decade? The "action RPG" genre may well have exploded *because* of Diablo, but it certainly has no dearth of excellent titles, with better (3D) graphics, more dialogue, more of a story. Sure, no game has done *exactly* Diablo - because their "asses" (and I don't mean donkeys!) would have been sued from here to kingdom come!

as for:

"If there were a ton of games out in the market that are the isometric action-RPG model, then we probably would have more seriously done a different approach,..."

What I have seen is not isometric - it appears to be a *perspective camera* (as in regular 3D gaming view) with a locked view-point (a-la-Dungeon Siege - and that was done to allow pre-emptive loading of geometry, which *was* innovative). Isometric views/projections are unrealistic and generally not used oustide of 2D tile-based games (where they wer eused for very clear practical raesons). sheesh man, do some research!

This game is simply a long overdue update to the Diablo franchise, with some hints of a deeper *cough* story *cough* and 3D graphics (already old hat since DSiege). With all thier WoW generated wealth Blizzard could have upped the ante somewhat, but they have chosen not to and are now parading that as a virtue ;-) Good spin!
 
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why would Blizzard want to innovate drastically from their model? They are in the gaming business to make money, and it turns out they're very good at what they do.
 
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Innovation does not have to be a break anything - it can be some new experience which enhances the existing gameplay model (action) and increases, say, the experience after the xp grind becomes tedious. The excuse companies use for lack of innovation is usually "the company has no money to undertake anything risky". Clearly Blizzard can't use this excuse - instead they opt for "there are no other similar games why bother to try something news". I'm sorry, I don't buy that. I think they will make money regardless, even if they took a "risk", simply because of brand loyalty. Diablo, provides a base line - the question really is *why not* try to improve the experience (beyond what other have already done)? I'm glad there are companies that do still push the envelope - kudos to them.
 
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"But it just always amazes me, with a game series that's as successful as Diablo's been, that I don't feel like there's a lot of great competing games in that same genre."

Erm. Has he been in a fairy-induced coma for the last decade? The "action RPG" genre may well have exploded *because* of Diablo, but it certainly has no dearth of excellent titles, with better (3D) graphics, more dialogue, more of a story.

You don't understand what he is saying. Nothing can compete with the success of Diablo and in that, he is correct.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll41/raymond_philip/d2players.jpg

If you can't load the image, it says there are 62,821 people playing Diablo 2 on Battle.net on July 5th, 2008. 8 years after the game was released.

Please name a game with pretty graphics, compelling story and expensive voice actors that has that kind of success within this genre?
 
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There are two kinds of "innovation" :

- evolutionary innovation

- revolutionary innovation

EA is, for example, an example of the first one. (Except Spore, of course.)
 
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Booboo- Diablo might have been one of the greatest influences on the action RPG genre as a whole, but I can't imagine you'd say that every action RPG has Diablo-style gameplay. There was a time when it felt like Diablo clones were coming fast and furious, but that time passed and the wonderful Diablo isometric clickfest does indeed today occupy a strange space: financially successful, often derided for its ubiquitousness (by those who dislike it and haven't been paynig attention), and yet quite rare.

What recent examples of this sort of gameplay are there? I went to get my Diablo fix (oddly a few weeks before the rumors started flying hot and heavy), and from what clones did I have to choose? Sacred: UW was released 2005. That's 3 years ago. Beyond Divinity was released 2004. That's 4 years ago. Titan Quest: IT was released more than a year ago, and I'm getting a kick out of it. But what others are there from the past 24 months? 36?

(Seriously, I bet I'm missing some, and I'd love to eBay them)

My point is that the developer is neither deluded nor arrogant. Not arrogant because Diablo was at one time the most popular online game of all. That's success you'd expect to see immitated. And not deluded because there has been no pretender to the Diablo throne. Just because you think Oblivion is part of the same meta-genre as Diablo doesn't mean the two have remotely similar gameplay.
 
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But what others are there from the past 24 months? 36?
(Seriously, I bet I'm missing some, and I'd love to eBay them)
Dunno... it depends on your personal qualifying criteria for a Diablo clone. Apart from the games you've mentioned the following titles have been released in around the last twelve months and are ARPGs or have strong ARPG leanings:
Avencast: Rise of the Mage, Hellgate: London, The Witcher, Loki, Silverfall, Depths of Peril, Legend: Hand of God. I'm sure there are others.
 
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