San Francisco, U.S.A. — The Game Developers Conference (GDC) has opened nominations for the 13th annual Game Developers Choice Awards through January 4, 2013. Produced by the UBM Tech Game Network, the Choice Awards are the most prestigious honors in the world of video game development.

The Game Developers Choice Awards recognize the artistry and technical genius of leading industry professionals across multiple game development disciplines. The 13th Annual Awards ceremony will take place the evening of March 27, during GDC 2013 in San Francisco, CA.

Awards in 10 categories are open for nominations for games that launched to retail or debuted online during the 2012 calendar year.  Nominations are also open for three special awards: the Pioneer Award which celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history – paving the way for the myriads who followed them, the Ambassador Award, which honors an individual who helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games, and the Lifetime Achievement Award. All three special awards are open to anyone not previously recognized.

In addition, the Choice Awards will be adding the new Audience Award category for the first time. Fans will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite video game that was released in the previous calendar year. Voting for the audience award will open on February 4, 2013 and will be completely open to the public to cast votes.

Nominations can be submitted by any worldwide game professional, registered with a Gamasutra.com account, simply by voting via the Game Developers Choice Awards website.

Winners will be selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards’ International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is a handpicked group comprised of 500 leading game creators from across of the video game industry. Special Award winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes notable industry veterans from Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, CCP, ngmoco, Valve, Zynga and more.

The Game Developers Choice Award categories open for nominations are:

Regular Awards:

• Best Audio
• Best Debut Game
• Best Downloadable Game
• Best Handheld/Mobile Game
• Best Game Design
• Best Narrative
• Best Technology
• Best Visual Arts
• Innovation Award
• Game of the Year
• Audience Award (Voting to open on February 4, 2013)

Special Awards:

• Lifetime Achievement
• Pioneer Award
• Ambassador Award

The ceremony, produced by the GDC and media sponsored by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, will take place on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at 6:30pm. The ceremony is held immediately following the Independent Games Festival Awards, and will take place at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards or to submit a nomination ballot, visit www.gamechoiceawards.com

Image Courtesy : Lev radin / Shutterstock.com

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Here is the conclusion of our in-depth look at Diablo III!

Those who have been following the game for any length of time know that the art style has been the subject of unending controversy. The designers went for a ‘painterly’ style, and a vociferous group of fans claimed that it was too cartoony and colorful. While it is true that Diablo III looks different from its predecessors, the new style works. The scenery in this game is some of the best I have ever seen. It is true that there is a lot of color, but you need color to make the areas distinct and interesting. Wandering through four acts of darkness and gloom would get old very quickly. The autumnal areas of Act I and the luminous halls of Act IV deserve special mention for their superior execution.

Diablo III also features a stunning array of monsters. Each act has a diverse bestiary, with few overlaps. The monsters also deploy an equally diverse arsenal of attacks. The Dune Dervishes of Act II spin wildly, deflecting projectiles in the process, while the Morlu Casters of Act II can call down meteors from the sky to cause your character a world of pain. Champion and Elite monsters also receive special modifiers, such as ‘Vortex’ (which allows them to pull you into melee range) and ‘Waller’ (where they cause walls of stone to rise up and block your path). In Normal mode, Champions and Elites get one modifier, but in subsequent difficulty levels they get an additional one, which means they can have up to four in Inferno. Running into a pack of foes that are Wallers/Jailers/Arcane Enchanted/Invulnerable Minions is enough to give even the hardiest adventurer pause.

One area where the game fell flat was the story. For the past four years, the developers have been bragging that Diablo III would have the best story of all the games. But while it had some really cool moments, it also had some glaring plot holes. The random lore books that you find scattered throughout the world are really well done though. One also has to wonder why they felt the need to bring back no fewer than three minibosses from earlier games. Nostalgia is all well and good, but in this case it felt a bit forced. Blizzard also needs to realize that having villains explain their plans in a gloating fashion is the worst kind of cliché.

There are also times when the game feels… incomplete. Acts III and IV feel rushed, though the designers have maintained that this was a deliberate design decision to heighten the feeling of suspense by rushing the player toward the climax. But it is not just a question of pacing: those two acts seem to have fewer random areas and events than the two previous acts. It is also regrettable that the final act does not feature its own ‘town’ like the other three acts did. Given the final act’s spectacular setting, it would have been cool if we had had the chance to interact with more NPCs. In Act IV, you encounter a hostile NPC and it looks like you are going to have to fight him, but then he suddenly falls over (well, it is a bit more complicated than that, but I do not want to spoil it for those of you who have not seen it yet). It seems obvious that Blizzard had to cut the fight for some reason (perhaps to save it for an expansion pack?), but the change seems quite bizarre.

But do not let these quibbles dissuade you: Diablo III is still a fantastic game and a worthy addition to the series. It is every bit as addictive as its predecessors, and chances are you will find yourself staying up until all hours of the night as you try to clear out one more area or get one more skill. The little pockets of randomness that are sprinkled throughout the world make the game seem fresh, even on the tenth playthrough. All in all, it is an excellent piece of game design, and it is well worth the insanely long wait.

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After nearly twelve years of development, Diablo fans can finally return to Sanctuary to fight the forces of the Burning Hells once more. Diablo III hit store shelves with a great deal of fanfare, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that it was one of the most eagerly anticipated titles of the decade. But does the game live up to its hype? In a word: yes.

Diablo III follows the same basic formula as its predecessors. Players choose one of five classes (Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Monk, Demon Hunter, and Wizard), each of which has its own unique set of skills. You must then journey through four different acts, ridding the world of Sanctuary of monsters as you go. As you gain more experience, your character gains access to different abilities. He or she also finds progressively greater loot, and the hunt for better items can become a game-within-a-game. Although the default mode is single-player, fans can also team up with up to three other people to fight demons cooperatively. There are four difficulty levels, ranging from Normal to Inferno. Inferno is meant to be brutal, and only characters who have reached the highest level will have a chance of surviving. But it is also where the best loot will be found.

Each of the five classes plays very differently. As you might expect, the Barbarian is a tank who specializes in dealing (and taking) huge amounts of damage. The Wizard, on the other hand, has been described by the design team as a ‘glass cannon’ who can dish out quite a bit of punishment, but cannot take much in return. The Monk is a martial arts master who strikes quickly and deploys special auras to heal himself and his teammates. The Witch Doctor is the spiritual successor to Diablo II’s Necromancer, and he makes use of poison, curses, and pets to kill his foes. The Demon Hunter is a ranged class who plays like a cross between the Amazon and the Assassin from Diablo II. Her primary attacks use bows and crossbows, but she is also capable of laying down deadly traps.

The skill system has been one of the most controversial aspects of the game. In Diablo II, players had to invest skill points to access skills and improve their performance. Now, skills simply unlock based on character level, and players eventually have access to all of their characters’ skills. However, you can only have six skills active at any one time (by default, they are bound to the left and right mouse buttons and the 1-4 keys), and while you can switch skills at any time, there is a 15-second cooldown if you do so outside of town. Because a skill’s damage is now tied to the character’s weapon damage, there is no need to put points into a skill since skills now ‘level up’ as the character gains better gear. This also means that you can continue to use your first skill throughout the game, if you choose.

Skills are divided into categories, and each category is bound to a mouse button or key unless you go into the game options and enable Elective Mode, which gives you the freedom to bind your skills to whichever button/key you please. Unless you are brand new to the action-role-playing genre, you will probably want to go ahead and enable Elective Mode. The default settings are way too restrictive, and can actually make the game more difficult in higher levels.

Each skill also has five runes, which are also unlocked as you progress. Activating a rune modifies the skill in some way. Sometimes, it is as basic as adding more damage, but it can also change the nature of the skill entirely. For instance, the Sleet Storm rune changes the Wizard’s Ray of Frost skill from a beam of cold energy to a swirling vortex that freezes enemies in her vicinity. Runes are an exciting addition to the game, and they help keep the leveling process interesting after you reach level 30 and have unlocked all your basic skills.

Some fans have complained that the skill system does not allow for sufficient customization. They argue that, since everyone has access to everything, players will eventually resort to cookie cutter builds. In actuality, this does not seem to be the case. Because Blizzard has made a concerted effort to ensure that all skills remain viable to some extent throughout the entire game, players have a lot more freedom to tailor their builds to their own particular play style. In my own experience, my friends and I end up using completely different skills, yet our builds still manage to work. In Inferno difficulty, your skill choices become a bit more limited, but Blizzard has said that they plan on rectifying this in a forthcoming patch.

Combat also feels a lot more tactical. In Diablo II, players often focused on spamming a couple of high-level skills, but now you have to be much more careful when deploying your skills. Cooldowns and resource restrictions force you to deploy your skills carefully instead of just mashing buttons. You have to balance offense, defense, and ‘crowd control’ in a way that was largely absent from earlier games. Finding the right combination of skills to defeat a particularly difficult pack of elite monsters is much more rewarding than just blitzing them with one or two skills.

Followers have also received a big upgrade in Diablo III. You can choose either the Templar (a melee character), the Scoundrel (a ranged character), or the Enchantress (a mage). As in the previous game, you can give them weapons and armor, but now you can also choose the skills they use as they gain experience. For example, the Templar can heal you, while the Scoundrel can spray his foes with poisoned arrows. Followers also have distinct personalities, and they will converse with your character throughout the game. Some of their lines are quite amusing, though they can get repetitive after a while.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our in-depth look at Diablo III!

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Blizzard’s Diablo 3 breaking sales records to become the fastest selling PC game of all time should come as no surprise. The title, long awaited and massively hyped, sold over 3.5 million copies in its first day of release despite issues at launch, eventually breaking the 6 million mark before the week closed.

What is surprising is that Max Payne 3, Rockstar Games’ big release of the year, managed to outsell Blizzard’s much-anticipated gem in the UK. In physical copies, at least, Max Payne 3 was able to sell 8,000 more copies than Diablo 3 to the British gamers, locking on to the number one spot in UK sales charts.

While digital copies are not counted in the charts, Max Payne 3 achievement says a lot, and may be proof that new Max Payne games are a worthwhile endeavor.

The original Max Payne game was released in July 2001 for Windows and was later ported to the PS2, Xbox, Macintosh, and the Gameboy Advance. Its grit and hard-boiled atmosphere garnered much praise from prestigious gaming websites such as IGN and Gamespot, and a sequel soon followed. Subtitled “The Fall of Max Payne,” it followed in much the same vein as its predecessor. Despite positive reviews from the same major websites (although many criticized the short length), sales were unsatisfactory. According to the website VGChartz, the game eventually went on to sell 2 million across all consoles (the original sold 3.3 million) but the damage was already done. The only entry in the Max Payne series until now was a (predictably bad) movie tie-in released in 2008.

Leading up to Max Payne 3’s release, Rockstar began an aggressive advertisement campaign—a risky move, considering Max Payne is not one of the companies’ flagship series, titles that guaranteed to rake in a lot of money such as Grand Theft Auto. Also unlike Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne games (3 included) have been traditionally linear, resulting in little replay value, and relatively short game play. Max Payne 3 aims to fix this by including a multiplayer mode, lauded by critics.

Could this incentive to keep players busy after completing the story mode result in more sales?  The Diablo Battle Chest was the 18th bestselling PC game of 2008, mostly due to its online mode. Online multiplayer modes seem to be the path to success. Could it be the key to Max Payne reestablishing itself as a franchise? A strong online following certainly would help the series. There is not much Max Payne fans can do, other than cross their fingers and wait.  Oh, and play more Max Payne.

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The launch of Diablo III made headlines, but not in the way Blizzard Entertainment would have liked. After waiting for twelve years, Diablo fans learned that technical problems could be more fearsome than any demon when the game’s servers crashed spectacularly on release day.

Unlike the earlier games in the series, Diablo III requires players to be connected to the Internet at all times, even when playing the game’s single-player campaign.

Over two million people pre-ordered Diablo III, and there were over 8,000 midnight launch parties worldwide. But when eager fans tried to enter the world of Sanctuary, they put an enormous strain on the company’s servers. They were confronted with an esoteric group of error messages, the most popular of which was Error 37, which was so widespread that it became a trending topic on Twitter. While whiling away the hours of downtime, frustrated players vented their frustration by creating numerous Error 37 memes.

Blizzard was forced to take the Diablo servers offline no fewer than three times for ‘emergency maintenance.’ Players also experienced numerous random disconnects. When I attempted to play the game, I was disconnected no fewer than five times throughout the day. Lag remained an issue as well, with combat becoming a mess as characters and monsters rubber-banded all over the screen as the main servers struggled to keep up with gameplay.

The final bout of maintenance ended at 11:21 pm PST, which was actually ahead of schedule for a change. Thankfully, Blizzard seemed to have gotten things under control, and the game played very well, without any of the login problems, random disconnects, and terrible lag that marred earlier play sessions.

These connectivity woes cast fresh doubt on Blizzard’s controversial decision to make Diablo III online-only. When the decision was first announced, Blizzard claimed that it was a necessary step to combat hacking.

They rejected the idea of having separate characters for single player and multiplayer, alleging widespread anger among Diablo II players who were unable to play multiplayer games with their single player characters. However, another (perhaps more plausible) explanation might be that, because real money is at stake in the game’s Auction House, Blizzard has to be even more vigilant about hacks and dupes.

Diablo III’s technical woes have generated a firestorm of bad press for Blizzard, and media outlets from Kotaku to the Daily Mail covered the glitches in excruciating detail. Despite these ‘teething troubles,’ the initial reviews of the game are generally positive. The Toonari Post will have its own review posted in the near future, so stay tuned!

Image Courtesy of    http://eu.battle.net

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In the third installment of the official Diablo III comic book, our mopey hero returns home seeking the punishment he has been craving since the first issue.

The issue begins on a cool note, as a band of Khazra goat demons argue with the thugs who are pursuing Jacob. In a truly creepy moment, the thugs’ leader, Ivan, starts bleeding from his facial orifices as he strikes a bargain with the demons.

It soon becomes apparent that Ivan is possessed by a sinister force—a force that offers to make the Khazra great again if only they will reveal Jacob’s location. The Khazra spend about five seconds contemplating the offer before declaring that Jacob and his wizard friend, Shanar, are hiding beneath them.

Thankfully for Jacob, Shanar has some more nifty wizard tricks up her sleeve, and she deploys several new in-game spells, including Mirror Image and Electrocute. Meanwhile, Jacob engages in some expository combat with Ivan that reveals that the madness affecting Jacob’s people is apparently spread by blood.

A well-placed lightning bolt from Shanar knocks Ivan to the ground, which gives Jacob an excellent opportunity to rid himself of the madman who has been pursuing him for the past three issues. Common sense suggests that it might be a good idea for him to use his flashy magic sword to lop off Ivan’s head. Sadly, common sense is not Jacob’s strong suit.

Instead of killing Ivan, he uses his sword to carve glyphs into his chest. Shanar is naturally confused, and Jacob explains that he will return to his home city of Staalbreak with Ivan and the other thugs so that he can face justice for killing his father.

The problem is, Jacob’s plan is epically stupid. I understand that he feels guilty about killing his father (he has, after all, been moaning about that since the first issue), but the idea that he will find justice back home is just laughable.

He knows his people are suffering from an insanity-inducing plague of unknown, but undoubtedly sinister, origin, yet he is willing to let them sit in judgment of him. That is not nobility. That is not ‘doing the right thing.’ It is a logic fail of titanic proportions, and Jacob richly deserves the slap that Shanar administers to try to jolt some sense into him.

Naturally, things go to Hell as soon as Jacob returns home. The townspeople start to stone him as soon as he enters the city. He is dragged before the constable (who has the face of a demonic Kewpie doll) and is cheerfully informed that there will be no trial. Jacob was found guilty as soon as he fled the city. Jacob begs for a chance to address the people, and the constable agrees, provided Jacob surrenders his super powerful magic sword.

Because Jacob has all the common sense of a head of cabbage, he agrees to this proposal and is promptly hung from a gibbet by his wrists. The townspeople start stoning him again, and they refuse to listen to his attempts to warn them about the plague. He spends an entire night hanging from the gibbet before Shanar saves his sorry butt once again.

Throughout the issue, readers have cause to question Jacob’s intelligence. If he did not know about the blood plague, then his decision to return home to face justice would seem noble, but he knows something is rotten in Staalbreak. He watched his father go crazy. He saw Ivan and his minions eat a boar while it was still alive.

Heck, he even heard Ivan speaking in the voice of a demon! All these things suggest that Jacob’s countrymen are under the influence of something nasty, but he seems oblivious to the danger he faces. He apparently believed that all he had to do was address the people, and they would realize that something evil was afoot. Calling him naïve would be the understatement of the year.

This is the second time Jacob’s masochistic guilt has gotten him into a dicey situation from which Shanar has had to rescue him. We can only hope he has finally learned his lesson.

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Diablo fans around the world can finally rejoice! Blizzard Entertainment announced on March 15 that Diablo III will hit stores exactly two months later on May 15.

“After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we’re now in the homestretch,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, in a statement uploaded to the company’s website. “We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15.”

Diablo III will be released for both Windows PCs and Macs. The standard edition will cost $59.99, while the collector’s edition will be $99.99. The collector’s edition includes a range of goodies, including the game’s soundtrack, an art book, a behind-the-scenes DVD/Blu-Ray two-disk set, and 4 GB flashdrive in the form of an in-game artifact called a soulstone. It will also feature bonus content for other Blizzard games, such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft II.

Diablo III’s development cycle has been unusually protracted, even by Blizzard’s notoriously slow standards. Although it was first revealed to the public at the Blizzard World Wide Invitational in Paris on June 28, 2008, most observers believe that the game had already been in development for eight years by that point.

Blizzard North, the division that produced the first two Diablo games, is said to have started on Diablo III shortly after the completion of Diablo II in 2000. But in May 2003, Blizzard North was rocked by the departure of four of its top executives, which set in train a chain of events that ultimately led to the division’s closure in 2005. Blizzard Irvine ultimately decided to scrap all of the previous work on Diablo III and start from scratch. For the next few years, there were occasional rumors about the game’s development. While Blizzard maintained that the Diablo franchise was not dead, it was not until 2008 that the game’s existence was publicly confirmed.

Back when the game was announced, few people expected that it would take four more years before it would hit store shelves. Almost from the get-go, the game was controversial. Everything from the art style to the in-game chat functions have been criticized by fans. Of course the seemingly glacial pace of the development process did not do much to calm fan anger, either. Through it all, Blizzard clung tenaciously to their vision for the game, promising fans that the finished product would be phenomenal. In two months, we shall see whether they are right.

Image Courtesy of  Blizzard

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Diablo fans got a nasty surprise on March 9 when lead game designer Jay Wilson announced that Diablo III’s PvP content will not be available until after the game is released.

“After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete,” Wilson said in an official statement on the official Diablo 3 website.

Although the Diablo series focuses on Player vs. Monster combat, there have always been fans who would rather slaughter each other instead of the minions of hell. Diablo II featured a ‘go hostile’ button that allowed a player to attack other players.

In many cases, this was used for consensual dueling, but there were also people who would unilaterally declare hostility (a practice known as Player Killing or PKing). Players who suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a declaration of hostility often died because their characters were not properly configured for PvP play.

Diablo III was supposed to offer a more advanced PvP experience. Instead of fighting each other within the main game, PvP fans would be able to duel in special Arenas. Non-consensual PvP would also be a thing of the past. Players would only be able to fight each other within the confines of the Arena.

But instead of shipping with the game, PvP content will be patched in at some point after the game is released. Wilson attempted to placate disappointed fans by touting the awesomeness that is to come.

“When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.”

Sadly, this is just the latest feature that has had to be jettisoned because of time constraints. Special fatality animations, the Mystic artisan, and now PvP have all been sacrificed or postponed in order to get the game out. But considering the game has been in development for over a decade, fans could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at Blizzard’s sudden need for speed.

Ironically, back in May 2010, a fan suggested that PvP content be delayed until after launch in order to speed things up. At the time, a Blizzard community manager rubbished the notion, assuring fans that implementing the PvP content would not delay the game’s release (!). But with any luck, this is one of the last hurdles, and we will soon be counting down the days until the Lord of Terror is released on the world once more.

Image Courtesy of   http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/

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Welcome back to our coverage of Patch 13! In the last installment, I talked a bit about the new rune system that Blizzard unveiled. That was by far the biggest single change, but Patch 13 made a host of smaller changes to the game as well.

Every character has had the order of their skills adjusted. Few of the changes were terribly dramatic. In most cases, it is just a matter of getting a skill a little bit sooner or a little bit later than you did before. But a few skills (such as the Wizard’s Disintegrate) have been taken out of the beta entirely since they are now beyond the level 13 cap. Similarly, a few skills that used to be above that cap have now been moved down into beta territory.

The Wizard continues to be my favorite character. This time around, instead of relying on my tried-and-true combo of Spectral Blade and Arcane Orb, I experimented with using Shock Pulse as my main attack. Shock Pulse is a lot like Charged Bolt from Diablo II, in that it sends out bolts of energy that move randomly. It can be difficult to hit specific targets, even if you are standing right in front of them. But it does have two redeeming features.

First, because it is a Signature Spell, you do not have to use Arcane Power to cast it; this is even more important now that the Wizard’s Arcane Power regeneration has been reduced. Second, when you use the Explosive Bolts rune, enemies killed with Shock Pulse will explode, doing lightning damage to nearby monsters.

But the stars of the show were undoubtedly Electrocute and Arcane Torrent. Electrocute is not new, but it now unlocks at level 11 instead of level 13, which makes it much easier to reach without a bunch of grinding. It is sort of like a combination of Lightning and Chain Lightning from Diablo II.

You cast it by holding down the mouse button, and it will leap from monster to monster. It will even leap to destructible pieces of the environment, such as urns and tree stumps. In its un-runed state, it only does 70% of  weapon damage as lightning damage, but since it is a Signature Spell, you can spam it all you want. When you add Arcane Orb and Wave of Force, you can handle almost anything in the beta.

Arcane Torrent is a newcomer to the beta, however, and it allows you to bombard a location with a bunch of purple arcane projectiles. Its base damage is lower than Arcane Orb, but in some respects it is easier to use because it casts faster and, unlike Arcane Orb, you do not have to worry about it detonating prematurely, in case a monster comes between you and your target.

The biggest surprise was probably the Witch Doctor. I had played her a little bit in previous versions, but she just did not ‘click’ with me the way the Wizard or the Monk did. But I like her a lot more in Patch 13. As I mentioned in Part 1, her Poison Dart skill benefits greatly from the addition of runes.

Grasp of the Dead also seems improved, though the Patch Notes only mention an increase in the amount it reduces enemies’ movement speed. Of course it could be that Grasp of the Dead is just more noticeable now, because the new guided mode automatically binds it to your left mouse button when you unlock it at level 2. Before, I had to make a conscious effort to choose it.

Sadly, the Demon Hunter remains the runt of the litter. Not only do his initial skills lack the flashy pyrotechnics of the Monk or the Wizard, but he also has the hardest time killing monsters. Part of the problem is that he does not really have a good area of effect skill at first. Hungering Arrow can hit multiple enemies, but it is still too linear.

Bola Shot can damage nearby enemies when it explodes, but I have not found it to be terribly effective in dealing with groups. The closest thing he gets to a proper AOE skill is something called Caltrops, but all it does is slow enemies who walk over it. You would think that something named after sharp metal spikes would do some sort of physical damage to enemies! As much as I would like to see D3 released ASAP, I hope they will take some extra time and polish the Demon Hunter a bit more.

I had hoped that Patch 13 would do something to make crafting seem less overpowered, but in that respect I was sorely disappointed. The stuff the blacksmith makes for you is still much better than most of the magical loot you find. There is no real downside to crafting either. The average crafted item at this level costs around 150 gold pieces and requires three Subtle Essences, yet my five characters have around 15,000 gold pieces and 50 Subtle Essences between them.

Once my characters have leveled-up enough to wear crafted items, loot becomes little more than a source of raw materials. Crafting just feels cheap, both literally and figuratively. I hope that things balance out later on in the game, so that the blacksmith’s items end up being either more expensive or less powerful.

Patch 13 has been a lot of fun, and the game continues to shape up nicely. Even though I have run through the same areas dozens of times now, the gameplay still manages to be addicting, which definitely bodes well for game’s long-term prospects. Blizzard has said it is shooting for a second quarter release, so with any luck we are already in the home stretch!

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Last weekend, Blizzard released Patch 13 for the Diablo III beta. At long last, fans have a chance to try the new skill and rune system the developers have been working on over the past few months.

The introduction of runes is probably the biggest change in Patch 13. Like almost every aspect of the game, runes have had a rather convoluted history. Originally introduced as ‘runestones’, they were supposed to be loot items that could be socketed into skills in order to modify that skill in some way.

They came in five colors, and their effects ranged from the mundane (putting an Alabaster runestone into the Wizard’s Magic Missile increased its damage) to the bizarre (putting a Crimson runestone into the Witch Doctor’s Zombie Charger turned it into a zombie bear). Each stone had seven ranks, with the higher-level ones becoming progressively rarer. This system was never incorporated into the beta, and few people outside of Blizzard had the chance to experiment with it.

But Patch 13 unveiled a dramatically-revamped system. Runestones have become ‘skill runes,’ and they are no longer droppable items. Now, they are part of the redesigned skill interface and they automatically unlock based on your character level. The color-coding is gone too, as are the different ranks. Each skill still has five possible runes that can be applied to it, but you will not be able to level them up. But their base effects remain more or less unchanged.

Given the limited scope of the beta, players only get to experience a fraction of the total number of runes. Even though the sample is limited, I was impressed with how they radically altered the gameplay. Take the Witch Doctor’s Poison Dart skill, for example. It is the first skill a Witch Doctor receives, but there is nothing particularly special about it to begin with.

Before Patch 13, I usually switched to something else as soon as possible. But when you equip the Splinters rune, you shoot several darts in quick succession, sort of like a machine gun. It is a dramatic improvement, and I kept Poison Dart as my main attack throughout the beta.

Runes can also alter a skill’s basic properties. Adding the Bounding Light rune to the Monk’s Fists of Thunder skill removes the knockback and adds a chain of lightning that strikes nearby foes, so players have to decide if they would rather have added damage or knockback. In theory, runes will help keep skills viable throughout the entire game, unlike in Diablo II where most skills became obsolete at some point. They also add a welcome element of customization.

Because runes offer so many potential changes, you can eventually adjust every skill to fit your play style. Of course not everybody is happy with the new rune system. Some fans are up in arms, claiming that there is now less customization since everybody automatically gets the same runes instead of having to find them as loot. I disagree. Chances are, lower-level runes would have dropped quite frequently, so it would have been easy for players to get all five colors.

Higher level runes of each color would have been rarer, but they would only increase the skill’s power. The rune’s underlying mechanic would stay the same. So the difference between individual rune levels would probably not have been terribly dramatic, and I am not sure they constituted meaningful customization (“Your Wizard’s Magic Missile can do 126% weapon damage? Ha! Mine can do 128%!”). The rune system does allow players to adjust a skill to fit their preferred play style, and I think that is much more important than fussing over numbers.

The only real complaint I have about the system is the new skill interface. It is horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Part of the problem is that Blizzard has decided to implement a new ‘guided mode’ where certain skills are automatically mapped to certain buttons. Now, skills are divided into categories. There are three general categories that all characters share (primary, secondary, and defensive), plus three class-specific categories (in the Wizard’s case, they are arcane, conjuration, and mastery).

When you are in guided mode, primary skills are bound to your left mouse button, secondary skills to your right mouse button, defensive skills are bound to the ‘1’ key, and so on and so forth. But if you want to bind primary skills to both mouse buttons, or put a defensive spell on the mouse instead of the keyboard, you are out of luck unless you go into the game options and check the box for ‘Elective Mode.’ Even then, the process of switching skills from one button/key to another is terribly awkward.

I am not one to QQ about things, but this new skill interface needs to go. While they are at it, I think they could safely do away with guided mode too. I realize they are just doing it to make life easier for casual gamers and people who are brand new to action RPGs, but I think they are offering help where it is not really needed.

The game already assigns skills to certain keys by default. If you do not want to mess around with your keybindings, you do not have to. But forcing people to use the defaults unless they enable a different game mode is just stupid. Check back soon for the second part of our coverage of Patch 13, including a look at how each character’s skills have changed.

Image Courtesy of   http://eu.battle.net

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DC Comics recently released the second installment of Sword of Justice, their new five-part series set in the world of Diablo, Blizzard Entertainment’s hit ARPG.

Issue #2 picks up right where its predecessor left off. Jacob ends up killing his father in self-defense, but it seems as if the old man’s mind had been poisoned by some mysterious ailment. With his last breath, he warns Jacob not to touch his blood. Back in the present, Jacob is still in the mysterious cave he discovered in the previous issue, staring at a glimmering sword that protrudes from the ground.

Jacob pulls it free, much to the relief of the hooded woman who had been guarding it. She introduces herself as a wizard named Shanar, and unlike most comic book females, she is actually somewhat modestly clothed. No chainmail bikini for her! She delivers some exposition about the sword, but her spiel is cut short when thugs from Jacob’s homeland pay him a visit. Jacob is reluctant to see them killed, so he forces Shanar to pull her magical punches.

In a nice nod to Diablo III, Shanar fights with wizard spells that will appear in-game, such as Electrocute and Wave of Force. Of course no good deed goes unpunished, and Jacob is rewarded for his mercy by being knocked unconscious and taken prisoner. Thankfully, Shanar returns to Jacob’s side and helps him to escape his captors. But the bad guys prove to be persistent, and Shanar uses a teleportation spell to whisk herself and Jacob from their grasp.

They end up in the Black Marsh near the Forgotten Tower (two areas that will be familiar to players of Diablo II), but the issue’s last panel suggests that they might have exchanged the frying pan for the fire.

The first issue was understandably a bit heavy on the exposition, but scriptwriter Aaron Williams has toned it down in Issue #2. He has also done a nice job of incorporating some of the newer lore that has been developed for the Diablo universe. The bit about the Crystal Arch in the High Heavens fits in nicely with the Book of Cain.

And speaking of lore, it is interesting to note that Williams told IGN that he had originally planned to have a scene in the Forgotten Tower. He ended up dropping it because the Tower apparently shows up in Diablo III and he did not want to create continuity problems. If the Tower does indeed make a comeback in Diablo III, it would be nice if we actually got to see it; in Diablo II, we only saw the (rather expansive) basement!

Despite Williams’ obvious talent, there are some plot issues that left me scratching my head in confusion. Take the battle in the cave, for example. Jacob tells Shanar not to kill the thugs, which seems spectacularly unwise given the circumstances. His decision to show them mercy might have been more believable if he were trying to reason with them, but he makes no such attempt.

Instead, he fights in moody silence and refuses to deliver killing blows. But what does he hope to gain by holding back? Does he hope his enemies will just get frustrated and leave him alone? Perhaps Williams was trying to show Jacob as naive and good-hearted, but instead he comes dangerously close to being ‘Too Stupid To Live’.

Similarly, when Shanar helps Jacob escape after he is captured, it seems hard to believe that she would not attack the thugs while they were busy dismembering their dinner. They were totally distracted; it would be the perfect opportunity for Shanar to take them all out. At the very least, she and Jacob should have discussed some sort of counterattack. Instead, she and Jacob just run off into the woods. That sort of behavior seems to be dictated by plot necessity rather than logic.

Those matters aside, Issue #2 was an enjoyable read. Overall, the story remains compelling, and it will be interesting to see what else Williams has in store for Jacob and Shanar.

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Here is Part 2 of our look at the Diablo III beta!

As longtime Diablo fans know, the game’s art style has attracted a fair bit of controversy over the years. Some of the earliest screenshots showed a bright, autumnal world that struck some fans as out of place in a dark and gritty series like Diablo. However, if the beta is anything to go by, fears of a shiny and cheerful Diablo are unfounded.

The outdoor environments are decidedly somber, featuring a dark color palette and macabre touches (such as hanging corpses swinging from nearby trees), and the dungeons are littered with the mutilated corpses of townsfolk. True, the art style is rather stylized: the game designers have repeatedly said that they were aiming for a ‘painterly’ aesthetic.

If you are looking for cutting-edge, photo-realistic graphics, you should probably look elsewhere. However, Diablo III’s graphics are stunning, and they have their own grim charm. Judging from the beta, this is going to be an incredibly atmospheric game. The designers have rendered the world with a loving attention to detail that was lacking in previous games.

For example, in Diablo II the outdoor areas were randomly generated, which usually meant that they were large rectangular areas adorned with random bits of scenery. While the map varied from playthrough to playthrough, the world did not really come alive. In Diablo III, the wilderness areas are static, which allows the designers to create a much more detailed landscape. In order to keep things from getting boring, the designers inserted dynamic areas within each map that change each time you visit.

A cellar that was boarded up tight on your first playthrough might be open the next, allowing access to a mini dungeon. I also found myself interacting with the world like never before. Much of the scenery can be destroyed: tables can be smashed to bits and wrought-iron chandeliers dropped on the heads of unsuspecting monsters.

Sometimes, the scenery will attack you. While walking through the catacombs, it is not uncommon for plaques on nearby vaults to spring off as cackling skeletons crawl forth to do battle, and if you stand too close to certain ravines, you may find yourself surrounded by zombies. On higher difficulty levels, moments like these could become quite perilous.

Speaking of peril, I have to admit that the  beta is actually quite easy. There were very few “oh, crap!” moments where I felt like I was in danger of dying. Patch 10 has increased the difficulty somewhat, as I have noticed more packs of ‘champion’ monsters that present more of a challenge (though that is offset by an increase in character hit points).

On the whole, the difficulty is not onerous. That might not necessarily be a bad thing, considering this is the very beginning of the game. While series veterans would undoubtedly appreciate a bigger challenge, the game also has to be accessible for people who are completely new to the series, or even the action-RPG genre as a whole. I imagine that later parts of the game, and the three additional difficulty levels, will present players with the challenges they seek.

Despite its limitations, the Diablo III beta has been an enjoyable experience. Blizzard has put together a solid game that shows signs of being just as addictive as its predecessors. Now if only they would finally release the $^@! thing!

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It is no exaggeration to say that Diablo III is one of the most-anticipated games around. First announced in 2008, it has been mired in a lengthy development cycle that has seen Blizzard’s obsession with iteration reach new heights.

Last September, the game finally entered the beta testing phase, and thanks to the generosity of a friend, I have been able to spend some quality time with the Wizard, Monk, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, and Barbarian as they take the first few steps on the road to defeating the Lord of Terror.

The Diablo III beta test consists of the very beginning of the game (roughly one third of the first act). Not only that, but Blizzard seems to have edited the game to remove as many potential spoilers as possible, so beta testers are only seeing a tiny sliver of the total content. Character progression is capped at level 13, so you can only experience a handful of the available skills.

Despite the limited scope, the beta sucks you in right from the get-go, and you will find yourself fighting monsters within the first few seconds of starting a new game. Unlike previous games in the series, each character starts with a skill, so you feel powerful from the outset.

Blizzard has gone out of their way to make sure that even first-tier skills are satisfying: the Barbarian’s Bash skill can literally knock a monster’s skeleton out of its body, while the Monk’s Fists of Thunder sizzles enemies with a satisfying display of lightning damage. RPG purists might object to this on the grounds that new characters should start the game weak and defenseless, but the Diablo III approach certainly livens up the first minutes of the game.

In terms of gameplay, Diablo III shares many similarities with its illustrious predecessors. At its heart, it is a point-and-click dungeon crawler. But character progression is handled much differently than it was in previous games. It used to be that, upon leveling up, you received a certain number of attribute points that you could allocate to traits such as vitality, dexterity, strength, etc.

Now, the game does the allocation for you. Some players have complained that this removes an important method of customization, but I cannot say that I missed manually assigning my attribute points. In practice, you had to adhere to fairly rigid guidelines if you wanted your character to be viable in Diablo II, so most characters ended up having similar attribute distributions.

The way in which you acquire new skills has also changed. Skills in Diablo III are linked to character level, and you no longer have to allocate skill points to make them more powerful. Now, their damage scales as your stats improve, and you acquire better weapons (even spells are tied to weapon damage).

However, you can only have a certain number of skills active at any one time. You start the game with one active skill slot, which soon increases to two. By the end of the beta, you can have three skills active, though that number will rise to seven when you are playing the full game.

It is possible to change your active skills, though the mechanism for doing so is up in the air. When the beta first started, you could change your skills at any time, but the designers decided that that was too much of an exploit. A patch changed things so that you had to use something called the Nephalem Altar to change skills.

Since the altar was only found in town and at the beginning of one dungeon, changing skills was something of a production. Now, with Patch 10, the Nephalem Altar is gone, and you can once again change skills whenever you want, though there is a 30-second cooldown period for newly-switched skills.

Blizzard has made it clear that this current system is a work-in-progress, which is good since it leaves something to be desired. I can understand why they do not want to allow unfettered skill switches; that would make a mockery of the whole idea of limiting the number of active skills.

However, the 30-second cooldown just seems arbitrary, and it is odd that you have the same cooldown whether you are in the field or in town. Surely skills switched in town should not have any cooldown at all.

Going into the beta, I was a little bit concerned that the current skill system will lead to cookie-cutter builds since players no longer have to worry about spending skill points or investing in prerequisites. Playing the beta has convinced me that those fears are probably baseless.

People are always going to have differing play styles, and that, in turn, is going to influence which skills they choose to activate. For example, when my friend plays the Wizard, he likes to use Disintegrate, a skill that causes a beam of red energy to shoot forth from the Wizard’s hand in a straight line of death and destruction.

I, on the other hand, would much rather use Arcane Orb, which lobs a large galaxy-like ball of arcane energy across the screen until it explodes on contact with a monster. Even within the limited confines of the beta, the two of us were able to take different approaches to the same character. When you add runes (which are not even available in the beta) into the mix, you will have even more opportunities for customization.

Be sure to stay tuned for the second part of our coverage of the Diablo III beta!

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Jay Wilson, the Game Director of Diablo III, has taken to the game’s official blog to explain some of the changes that have delayed the game’s release.

Blizzard is notorious for their iterative approach to game design, and Diablo fans have had to endure a development cycle that has tried the patience of even the most patient gamers. The game was originally slated to be released at the end of last year, but in September, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced that the release window had been pushed back to early 2012.

It turns out that the delay was caused in part by the decision to introduce major changes to some of the game’s core elements. The Nephalem Cube and the Cauldron of Jordan have been removed entirely. The former allowed players to break down items to obtain raw materials for use in crafting, while the latter let them sell goods without visiting a merchant in town.

They were originally introduced because the designers wanted to limit the amount of time players spent in town, but now that players can return to town whenever they want, these items were no longer deemed necessary. “It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out,” Wilson said.

Another big change is the removal of the Mystic artisan. Artisans were touted as NPCs who would follow the player from town to town performing various services. Unlike regular NPC merchants, artisans would be able to level up, which in turn would improve the services they could provide. Like everything else in Diablo III, the Mystic changed over the course of development, but she ended up having the power to ‘enhance’ items by a random magical effect.

Ultimately, the designers came to realize that the enhancement system essentially duplicated the effect of the socket/gem system. “It would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time,” Wilson said. Like the other artisans, the Mystic played a role in the game’s story, which complicated her removal.

Character attributes have also undergone major revision. Attack, Precision, and Defense have been removed, replaced by Strength, Dexterity, and Intellect. Vitality remains untouched. As Wilson explained, “Armor is taking over for what Defense used to provide, Physical Resist will take over for Armor, and Chance to Crit will fill in for Precision.”

Furthermore, certain attributes will provide class-specific bonuses to bonuses. Strength will help the Barbarian, Dexterity will help the Demon Hunter and Monk, and Intellect will help the Wizard and Witch Doctor.

Wilson also announced a host of minor changes:

• Scrolls of Identify, long a feature of the Diablo series, are now gone. Instead of using a scroll, players will simply click on an unidentified item, and it will be identified after a brief time delay.
• Common items will no longer be salvageable. Originally, the designers believed that every item in the game should be useful. Common items (which are often referred to as “white” items because their names are shown in white) are not usually worth equipping, but at least players could salvage them for their raw materials. Those materials could then be used to craft powerful items. On reflection, the designers decided that having useless items was not necessarily a bad thing. “Diablo II captured the loot-piñata feel by dropping a lot of crap, mostly arrows and bolts, and we of course still very much want that feeling of item explosions. To do that we need to be able to balance the value of items to how many we’re throwing at you,” Wilson said.
• The Stone of Recall is now called the Town Portal. This is basically a case of the designers deciding to call a spade a spade.
• Character statistics will now be displayed alongside the Inventory screen. This will hopefully make it easier to figure out how items will affect you.
• The fifth quick slot button is now a dedicated potion button. Unlike the earlier games, health potions will play a relatively minor role in Diablo III. Instead, players will replenish their health through health globes that are dropped by enemies, but cannot be picked up for later use. Although health potions now have a somewhat lengthy cool-down time, they can still save a life, so it was decided to make them easier to access.

Fan reaction to Wilson’s announcement has been mixed. The changes themselves are not necessarily controversial, but their timing is. The fact that the designers are still tinkering with core game mechanics has led some fans to accuse them of lacking focus. It certainly did not help that Wilson also indicated that skills and runestones are undergoing revision as well.

Naturally, many fans are wondering what effect these changes will have on Blizzard’s stated goal of releasing Diablo III in “early 2012.” However, it has been confirmed that they have already been implemented in the game, and the vast majority of them will be rolled out to beta testers in a patch expected within the next few days. However, given Blizzard’s track record, this may not be the last word on the subject.

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Friday the 13th turned out to be Blizzard Entertainment’s lucky day. After a series of lengthy delays, the South Korean Game Rating Board has finally issued a classification for Diablo III. The game has received an “M-18″ rating, which means that its sale is restricted to those over the age of 18.

Normally, the board issues a rating within 15 days of a game’s submission. But in the case of Diablo III, board members were concerned about the proposed Real Money Auction House (RMAH). The RMAH would allow players to sell their in-game loot for cold, hard cash. This provision seemed to run afoul of South Korea’s strict restrictions on gambling.

Even before Diablo III was submitted, the Game Rating Board had issued a report arguing that selling randomly-dropped items for money was too similar to gambling, and so games incorporating that feature should be denied classification under Article 1 of the Gaming Industry Promotion Law. Since games must have a classification in order to be sold in South Korea, refusing to classify a game is essentially the same as banning it.

Despite intense media speculation that Diablo III would be denied a rating because of the RMAH, Blizzard went ahead and submitted the full game, including the RMAH feature. In a press conference held during Blizzcon 2011, Blizzard’s Chief Operating Officer, Paul Sams, denied that there would be a problem.

“Legally, we decided that there’s no issue. Therefore we plan to apply for rating including the full auction house. Of course this may change in the future, but we always want gamers around the world to play the same version of our games,” he said.

However, Blizzard’s optimism proved to be misplaced, and the Game Rating Board repeatedly delayed a final decision on Diablo III. Blizzard tried to placate the board by resubmitting the game with the ‘cashing out’ feature removed. This would have prevented players from converting the proceeds of their sales into real-world money, but the board was still uncomfortable with the game.

It wasn’t until Blizzard removed the RMAH entirely that the board finally handed down an M rating. It is possible that Blizzard may try to implement the RMAH at a later date since a different government agency would then be responsible for the decision.

There is still no official release date for Diablo III, leading some fans to wonder if the problems in South Korea weren’t delaying the game’s worldwide release. Blizzard officials have tried to nix those rumors, but their vague denials haven’t done much to dampen the speculation.

Image Courtesy of   http://eu.battle.net

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When I first heard that Blizzard Entertainment was going to produce an authoritative guide to the world of Diablo, I think I let loose a very undignified squeal of glee. Like many fans, I find the long wait for Diablo 3 to be a bit dispiriting, and the ‘Book of Cain’ looked like it might help tide me over until the game is released in 2012.

Historically, the Diablo series tended to emphasize action over storytelling. Players do not have to engage in elaborate conversations with NPCs, and it is possible to play the games without paying any attention to the underlying lore. As the series progressed, its mythology inevitably became more and more complicated, and Blizzard eventually commissioned several novels set in the Diablo universe. While their prose often left something to be desired, these books introduced important story elements to the series’ backstory.

The ‘Book of Cain’ takes material from the previous game manuals and the novels and reworks it into a coherent whole. Written by veteran screenwriter Flint Dille (if you are a fan of the old ‘G. I. Joe’ or ‘Transformers’ cartoons, you have probably seen his work), it purports to be an in-game artifact created by recurring NPC Deckard Cain.

As Cain reaches the end of his life, he plans to impart his knowledge to his adoptive niece, Leah. In doing so, he provides her with a narrative guide to the world of Sanctuary, starting with the creation of the cosmos and working his way down to the events that mark the beginning of Diablo 3. Longtime fans of the series will find much that is familiar, but there is enough new material to make the book a worthwhile read.

The inclusion of new material may rankle some fans. There are a number of places where story elements have been retconned. For example, the nameless Warrior from the first game is now called Aidan, and he has been transformed into the eldest son of the grief-stricken king whose madness played a central role in the Diablo story.

Some of the material from the Sin War trilogy has also been adjusted. While purists may greet these changes with angst, more sanguine fans will likely be able to accept them as inevitable side effects of writing about a fictional world whose ‘history’ has steadily evolved over the past fifteen years.

The ‘Book of Cain’ is lavishly illustrated, including several pieces by legendary fantasy artist Brom. Some of the illustrations have already been released, but many of them have never been seen by fans. The depictions of the battle between Anu and Tathamet and the angel Inarius in chains are particularly striking.

My only complaint about the art is that it is always rendered in monochrome. Of course, that makes sense considering this is supposed to be a handwritten manuscript, but I think some of the pieces would have been even more dramatic had they been in full color.

Video game tie-ins can be something of a mixed bag, but the ‘Book of Cain’ is definitely worth purchasing if you are at all interested in the lore of Diablo. It is not an essential part of the Diablo experience, but it will make your journey through Sanctuary much richer.

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Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Diablo III, the latest installment in their hugely-popular action RPG franchise, won’t hit shelves until 2012. “With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible. However, we didn’t put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready,” said Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime.

“The beta test is going very well, and we look forward to making the most of the extra time we’re taking to deliver an experience that lives up to our vision for the game and the expectations of our players. Next year is going to be an incredibly busy one for Blizzard, and we hope an incredibly fun one for Blizzard gamers,” he continued.

The announcement was not entirely unexpected, as Blizzard is notorious for the slow pace of their development process. Although Diablo III was announced in June 2008, its designers have adamantly refused to tie themselves to a release date, telling impatient gamers that the game will be released “when it’s done.”

Previously, Blizzard had hinted that they were hoping to release the game by the end of 2011. However, many fans began to question whether they would meet that target when the closed beta test didn’t begin until September 20.

Furthermore, feedback received during the initial stages of the beta test have convinced Blizzard to make some significant changes to the game, including a major overhaul for the Demon Hunter, one of the game’s five playable character classes. During the course of its extended development cycle, Diablo III has weathered a number of controversies.

Shortly after its initial unveiling, a vocal group of fans protested against the new art direction. They claimed that it was too colorful and too reminiscent of Blizzard’s other hit franchise, World of Warcraft. Despite howls of outrage on fansite forums, Blizzard refused to change direction.

More recently, Blizzard has caught flak for requiring players to be connected to the internet at all times while playing Diablo III, even when playing the game’s single-player mode. Additionally, they announced that players will now be able to purchase (and sell) in-game items for cash via an auction house, giving rise to claims that players who are willing to spend top dollar for items will end up having an unfair advantage.

In spite of the controversy, Diablo III remains one of today’s most-anticipated games, and the response to the beta has been overwhelmingly positive.

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