Diablo 3

[Maawdawg]

Here are some screens from Joystiq, nothing mindbending or groundbreaking to see but it sure does look pretty.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/30/di...-in-your-face/

[iron]

Is it just me or does the new skill tree look a little more WoWish than D2LoD?

[Maawdawg]

It looks like the D2:LOD skills set into a WoW style UI look, especially the look of the skill icons themselves. That might as well be a rogue assassination tree. It doesn't bother me I found the skill trees in WoW more than adequate, it makes sense that there is going to be WoW/Diablo "contamination" with so many people shifting from project to project and the UI structure available to cannibalize.

There is actually an article on Kotaku with an interview with someone from Blizzard discussing the features of the D3 inventory and how it takes ideas from WoW here.
http://kotaku.com/5191005/what-diabl...ld-of-warcraft

[SamuelMarston]

Rad. Character limits are not rad.

[Redenbacher09]

It does look very wowish, but if you want to go back a little further, the WoW trees are very similar to D2 trees, they just added color and better pictures. Totally acceptable.

The rest of the interface looks like a great upgrade. I'm not sure how I feel about the tabbed inventory. But I suppose potions are the only thing you need on the spot and need to have available if your belt runs out.

I wonder what those three orbs are for on the right side, that look like they're to be filled with something, or represent some kind of meter (Charge up skills? If it is the assassin tree?).

[Maawdawg]

the assassination tree thing was just me saying that it reminded me of the WoW rogue tree in look. I don't actually know what kind of tree it was. I don't have any problems with the look at all. I think it is a logical next step in the UI progression they have done along both series.

[TheRallyKiller]

Is it just me or does the new skill tree look a little more WoWish than D2LoD?

In a the kotaku write-up on it, one of the lead members of the development team talks about how they justify their switch to more WoWish colors, emblems, icons, and game aspects. I kinda felt like he was saying "gamers are stupid so we want to oversimplify it, trying to understand Diablo 2 was too difficult" but that's just me.

Here's the link to the kotaku write-up.
http://kotaku.com/5191005/what-diabl...ld-of-warcraft

[TheRallyKiller]

It looks like the D2:LOD skills set into a WoW style UI look, especially the look of the skill icons themselves. That might as well be a rogue assassination tree. It doesn't bother me I found the skill trees in WoW more than adequate, it makes sense that there is going to be WoW/Diablo "contamination" with so many people shifting from project to project and the UI structure available to cannibalize.

There is actually an article on Kotaku with an interview with someone from Blizzard discussing the features of the D3 inventory and how it takes ideas from WoW here.
http://kotaku.com/5191005/what-diabl...ld-of-warcraft

Sorry maawdawg, I double posted the link, but I still feel like they make Diablo 2 and Diablo 1 sound like advanced nuclear physics and that they've delivered the gaming community from the insane learning curve of those titles by WoWifying it.

[Redenbacher09]

How does adding colors and better imagery make it easier to understand? :confused: If anything the old D2 tree was rather lackluster (Stone texture with plain white images) and unpolished.

The main thing I'm excited about his having multiple skills available at once, on screen. I liked that aspect of WoW. In D2, I have to map half my keyboard to skills . Not horrible, but can be a little tedious, especailly for skills you only use in certain situations.

[SamuelMarston]

How does adding colors and better imagery make it easier to understand? :confused: If anything the old D2 tree was rather lackluster (Stone texture with plain white images) and unpolished.

I happen to enjoy the texture of white text on unpolished stone!!!

[Dubbabubba]

I quite fond of the UI (at least what I've seen of it) as well as the general art style. The menues look clean and organized, I wouldn't expect anything less.

[Maawdawg]

Skill tree info is starting to leak out now.

http://diablo3x.com/diablo-3-skill-trees

[Redenbacher09]

That's exciting. I love not being locked in to one tree, I always like spreading out, and specializing in my own sense of the word, and not the predefined tree title.

Nice find . I can't believe how much Blizzard is taking on all at once. It worries and fascinates me at the same time, because I know its all going to be amazing.

[Castrum]

Is it just me or does the new skill tree look a little more WoWish than D2LoD?

I am hoping this game can live up to D2's legacy, though I somewhat doubt that it can. The original devs are long gone now and, despite screwing up Hellgate completely, they did have the magic that ended up creating D2 in the first place.

As for the "WoW vs. D2" comparisons, I personally prefer D2's dark gothic fantasy look to D3's dark fantasy. I won't hate on the game itself for incorporating a different art style, but I'm starting to not like this whole "let's make everything shiny and WoW-like" trend Blizzard is on about. Doesn't it rob a game of its uniqueness if its art style is so much like everything else the developer makes? Think about how unique Tim Schafer's games would be if they all looked like Monkey Island.

NOTE: For reference:

(High) Fantasy (elves, flashy magic, Everquest) = Tolkien
Dark Fantasy (think Balverines, dark overcast environments) = Fable
Gothic Fantasy (incorporates gothic elements like ever-present darkness, lots of crypts and undead, but not really "evil") = MediEvil
Dark Gothic Fantasy (same as Gothic Fantasy, but more emphasis on gore, blood, demons, etc.) = Diablo 1 & 2

EDIT:

A thought: perhaps the similar art styles is Blizzard's attempt to have all their new releases be playable on as many systems as possible. WoW can play on almost any modern PC, and if it weren't for its art style, it would look horribly dated these days. One would imagine a "true" D3 with a high-end realistic gothic look wouldn't run well on a PC from 5 years ago.

Also, note that there may be elements in the aforementioned Fantasy "descriptions" that overlap (ex. Sauron/Mordor in Tolkien's stuff), but I'm referring to a general overall art theme in the content, not specific instances.

[Redenbacher09]

In my opinion the art style I've seen in the demos for D3 looks very similar to D2, but exploded outwards in to a real 3D environment with flashier effects. I would still consider it your dark gothic fantasy, as Diablo will always have a lot of blood, gore, undead, and demons.

The skill tree art itself I don't mind looking wow-ish. If you ask me, WoW just built on the D2 skill tree, made the icons smaller and added colors. What's wrong with that? It's easy to navigate and looks polished.

The projects they are currently working on look strikingly similar to their predecessors, just blown outwards with today's tech.

Saying that Blizzard is on a trend to make everything 'shiny and wow-like' isn't really fair, as they haven't released anything since WoW. SC2 looks nothing like WoW, and Diablo 3 is only bearing some resemblance because WoW borrowed heavily from D2, in my opinion. Not to mention, they are both RPGs.

[RedNara]

Is it just me or does the new skill tree look a little more WoWish than D2LoD?

Wow I always felt like WoW took it from D2 so...

[RedNara]

Just so everyone knows... D3 is going to be the best game ever.... until they made D MMO.

[Castrum]

SC2 looks noticeably shinier than SC1, at least IMO. For D3 to follow the same trend of "noticeably brighter/shinier", it leaves me wondering if this is what Blizzard will be doing from now on.

In regards to D2's categorization, perhaps what I meant was more "excessive gore/gritty realism" than simply "dudes lose limbs".

I don't honestly find this:



to be consistent in color scheme with this:



but opinions are opinions.

I still like the boss guys (like that one there), but the average enemy just isn't scary anymore. Beyond that, I find the sound effects for D3 to be bad (at least the attack sound), but that's another topic.

There might be more relevant comparisons to be found within the entirety of D3, but from what we've been shown it doesn't seem the same. If anything, Blizzard showed quite possibly the most controversial choice first, art-wise; while it's best to get this out of the way, it probably would have been better to show a Hellscape for some such thing.

One thing that does make me wonder the most about your response though, Redenbacher: haven't you noticed that the old brown/dull gray/black color palette has been replaced by a new dull green/bright gray/dark blue one?

[Zander Solo]

I have never played WoW, but the UI and skill tree looks like it came straight out of SWG Noob Gaming Experience.

[Maawdawg]

WoW is tuned for digestion of the general public so Blizzard can play in their giant piles of money. Noone who plays any kind of high end WoW for raiding uses their vanilla UI. I had upwards of 50 addons running at any given time if you added up all my class specific ones during my heavy raiding period. Not one thing on the Blizz regular UI was left unchanged from inventory to minimap, button size, layout, etc. Everything.

The art, design, and look of these games are all going to mesh and blend together because I am sure the dev deams aren't kept completely separate. It is like video game cross pollination because the Blizzard workers and employees are all flying around the same big field of a company.

[RedNara]

SC2 looks noticeably shinier than SC1, at least IMO. For D3 to follow the same trend of "noticeably brighter/shinier", it leaves me wondering if this is what Blizzard will be doing from now on.

In regards to D2's categorization, perhaps what I meant was more "excessive gore/gritty realism" than simply "dudes lose limbs".

I don't honestly find this:



to be consistent in color scheme with this:



but opinions are opinions.

I still like the boss guys (like that one there), but the average enemy just isn't scary anymore. Beyond that, I find the sound effects for D3 to be bad (at least the attack sound), but that's another topic.

There might be more relevant comparisons to be found within the entirety of D3, but from what we've been shown it doesn't seem the same. If anything, Blizzard showed quite possibly the most controversial choice first, art-wise; while it's best to get this out of the way, it probably would have been better to show a Hellscape for some such thing.

One thing that does make me wonder the most about your response though, Redenbacher: haven't you noticed that the old brown/dull gray/black color palette has been replaced by a new dull green/bright gray/dark blue one?

Its prob due to the fact that a lot of these games engine have some sort of familiarity. Also Blizzard tends to make games that are artistic and don't require crazy system specs. Also all acts really look different in D2, so I expect the same for D3. So won't judge how D3 looks like right now or w/e based upon what they currently showed. Just wait till some time around blizzcon.

Anyway about the shiny look its prob due to making the game from 2d to 3d and having better lighting. Also I really don't think Sc2 look more "shiny" just looks like it has more colors. So more vibrant... However, D3 does look lighter and it already got a heavy bash from fanboys when Blizz first showed off the game.

[Redenbacher09]

I will agree that the color pallets are different in the two images you have there, but never in D2 were the enemies 'scary' in any sense of the word.

I still feel what has been shown of D3 remains very dark and dreary. Even in D2, places like the ice caves and even the river of flame were quite vibrant in terms of colors.

Sure it's a bit brighter, just a tad. However, there's also a lot more detail and lighting effects going on than D2 ever had. They have a lot more to work with in a 'real' 3D environment than the 2D D2. (Haha - D2, 2D - D3, 3D - random observation)

As far as SC2, I'm not sure what you mean by 'shinier'. More vibrant colors, yes indeed. A more polished look, of course. And they still kept the mild cartoon aspect of it as well, perhaps a bit more exaggerated this time around. Overall though, in my opinion it still looks and feels like Starcraft.

They have a lot more colors to work with than they did 10 years ago, I don't blame them for utilizing them .

[Castrum]

but never in D2 were the enemies 'scary' in any sense of the word.

"Scary" is obviously a subjective term, though you can't honestly say that many enemies in D2 weren't horrific-looking (which is more what I meant).

Even in D2, places like the ice caves and even the river of flame were quite vibrant in terms of colors.

The vibrancy of those elements in D2 were juxtaposed by the dark, demonic grittiness of the game elements that had existed beforehand and were still being utilized at that point as well (enemies, general color palette, gore/blood, and so forth). The current scheme for D3 looks like it could be leaning away from that juxtaposition and giving in to more of the "vibrancy" featured in the bright colors from those areas in D2.

They have a lot more to work with in a 'real' 3D environment than the 2D D2.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This is (one of) the same argument(s) people used to use to justify changes from 2D to 3D in a series, and I can't honestly fathom why they would take something that works in a series and morph it into something else. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", as the saying goes.

They have a lot more colors to work with than they did 10 years ago, I don't blame them for utilizing them .

See above.

More vibrant colors, yes indeed. A more polished look, of course. And they still kept the mild cartoon aspect of it as well,

This is what I meant by "shiny".

SC1 had a cartoonish look to it, in a sense, but it certainly didn't look as cartoony as SC2 does.

[RAziel1979]

I like the new look, Blizzard is looking ahead into the future with the Diablo franchise, there is no need to go back to that old look.
I'm getting this game for sure!

[Batou079]

Been anticipating this since its "secret" website started.
Im a huge arpg fan, and played the diablo games way early in my PC gaming days...

Probly my fav all time Blizz games, sides Warcraft 3.
Starcraft was ok, but i was never that heavy into RTS.

The "new look" i think may actually change the mood from less dark and moody.
But with the ever growing competition in graphics technology, i spose its necessary to be able to get all the "OOoooos" and "Aaaahhhs".
Vibrant, sharp and detailed is the trend, but i dont think it will negatively affect our experience of D3... even us old school diablo fans.