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06-30-2008, 05:53 AM
|  | News ID | | Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 25,282
| |  More Diablo III Coverage
Several websites have brought coverage and opinions from Blizzard's Diablo III presentations at WWI. To start, IGN covers another panel, now on class and skill creation. It's pretty difficult to spend any significant amount of time with something you find genuinely irritating. Blizzard presented their case to fans at their Worldwide Invitational 2008 in Paris, France of how they're going about creating appealing classes and enjoyable play styles. While they didn't go into detail on any of the classes beyond the already announced barbarian and witch doctor, they did provide plenty of insight into their design and iteration processes.
Leonard Boyarsky, the lead world designer on Diablo III, kicked things off by talking about the importance of fusing lore into the class, both in appearance and functionality. All classes will have their own voices, will be able to engage in conversations with NPCs, and elicit class specific reactions from those they encounter. These enhanced narrative features are something Blizzard hopes will help players immerse themselves in the game world.
Boyarsky pointed out that just because there will be more developed narrative elements doesn't mean the player will get bogged down with story. "We like to think of it as deeper and more fulfilling [story]," said Boyarsky. "We're not going to have a longer presentation, there's not going to be huge dialogue trees, we're just doing a more concise, better presentation, we believe." The Inquirer takes a look at Diablo III and believes Blizzard is snubbing Nvidia. First off: the game will run on XP as well as Vista, with DirectX 10 being recommended but not required. As if that wasn't bad enough for the green team, which is working hard to shift new DX10 cards, the Direct X 10 included will be of the 10.1 variety - supported by DAAMIT but not the boys in green. This means that the best graphical experience might just be on ATI hardware.
And as a real kicker, Blizzard has opted for Havok physics - acceleratable on both Nvidia and ATI graphics cards, but now owned by Intel - over Physx, the physics platform from Nvidia.
To add salt to the wound, Blizzard will be keeping up with its tradition of releasing games simultaneously on Mac OSX as well as PC - meaning not only do you not need Vista to play, you don't even need a PC. MTV Multiplayer Blog has some details from the design panel. • More powerful heroes. “Diablo III” will support large-scale combat with characters who can deal with a lot monsters. Characters will not only have impressive new skills, but players will feel more powerful just by sounds and effects. It will feel “crazy and over the top,” he said.
• Strong and unique archetypes. The dev teams want to create cool, distinct characters with class-specific tactics, hence the introduction of the new Witch Doctor class. He said that all the classes got a “fresh start.” There’s also no final decision on the number of classes, and they will not necessarily bring back all the classes of “Diablo II.” Spotted on Diabloii.net.  |
06-30-2008, 08:06 AM
| | Exalted Member | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Detroit, MI USA
Posts: 496
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by GameBanshee News  The Inquirer takes a look at Diablo III and believes Blizzard is snubbing Nvidia. First off: the game will run on XP as well as Vista, with DirectX 10 being recommended but not required. As if that wasn't bad enough for the green team, which is working hard to shift new DX10 cards, the Direct X 10 included will be of the 10.1 variety - supported by DAAMIT but not the boys in green. This means that the best graphical experience might just be on ATI hardware.
And as a real kicker, Blizzard has opted for Havok physics - acceleratable on both Nvidia and ATI graphics cards, but now owned by Intel - over Physx, the physics platform from Nvidia.
To add salt to the wound, Blizzard will be keeping up with its tradition of releasing games simultaneously on Mac OSX as well as PC - meaning not only do you not need Vista to play, you don't even need a PC. | What? Blizzard didn't check in with Nvidia with what they're doing? What??? The nerve...
I do only buy GPUs using Nvidia chipsets, but are they that much the ruler of the universe in popularity?
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06-30-2008, 08:10 AM
|  | GameBanshee Editor | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Liberty City, the Netherlands
Posts: 821
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by CFM What? Blizzard didn't check in with Nvidia with what they're doing? What??? The nerve...
I do only buy GPUs using Nvidia chipsets, but are they that much the ruler of the universe in popularity? | Well, there is a lot of active dealing between software and hardware developers, in particular between graphic cards people and game publishers.
Nvidia is actively pushing DX10 and Physx to publishers wherever it can. Blizzard opted not to. I doubt it's as much a snub or offence as the Guardian pictures it, but I might be wrong. |
06-30-2008, 10:17 AM
| | Member | | Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 8
| | awww man this sucks.
I got Nvidia 8800GTS 512MB. awesome card. I've enabled the Physx with the new drivers and then I read this... 
Well, it's still early so...I believe Blizzard will somehow mend this. |
06-30-2008, 10:54 AM
| | GameBanshee Editor | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Liberty City, the Netherlands
Posts: 821
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by snnoopypw awww man this sucks.
I got Nvidia 8800GTS 512MB. awesome card. I've enabled the Physx with the new drivers and then I read this...
Well, it's still early so...I believe Blizzard will somehow mend this. | Mend what? It'll run fine on an Nvidia 8800GTS, it just doesn't utilize it as well as it does ATI cards and doesn't use Physx. |
06-30-2008, 05:27 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: May 2004 Location: CA
Posts: 160
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by GameBanshee News To add salt to the wound, Blizzard will be keeping up with its tradition of releasing games simultaneously on Mac OSX as well as PC - meaning not only do you not need Vista to play, you don't even need a PC. | This is just my educated guess, but I severely doubt you can play Diablo III without a Personal Computer, or "PC." 
...just one of my little pet peeves. Don't mind me. 
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06-30-2008, 08:08 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Frag Town
Posts: 4,906
| | I do remember reading one hardware review article in Guru3D about the Inquirer having a bias against Nvidia. Not surprised when I read that article. 
As for Diablo 3 itself, can't say I'm looking forward to it. Not because of the game itself, but I was never a fan of the series in the first place. I only liked Blizzard's strategy titles.
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Last edited by DesR85; 06-30-2008 at 08:11 PM.
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06-30-2008, 08:26 PM
|  | Moderator and Twisted Sister | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: The maelstrom where chaos merges with lucidity
Posts: 18,185
| | Well given the flurry of media coverage, let's hope the game lives up to the hype when it's finally released.. 
Personally, I'm not exactly a fan of the series, but for those who do like it, I hope there are no disappointments 
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