New Diablo III screenshots, design triumphs over blackness
Blizzard hasn’t yet announced the time within which works on Diablo III will be completed, but one can be sure about the fact that the software house is pretty busy into giving shape and substance to the game. The indiscretions coming from an unknown internal source talk about development resources almost entirely devoted to DIII in detriment of other important projects (Starcraft 2), while new screenshots appear on-line to catch and catalyze the fans’ eye.
The graphic stuff released by Blizzard in these days includes four images taken from the in-game phases and four artworks. The screenshots, showed below, once again exhibit the insane care for details, the bloodthirsty attitude and the great atmosphere that have always been the trademark of the Diablo saga. Even if they are simple fixed images, they clearly show the work and the efforts spent by the designers, artists and coders team in the attempt to deliver a deign Diablo II heir to gamers.
Furthermore the screenshots highlights the strong chromatic variations existing between the dungeons and the various stages, due to the broad color usage that is being debated between the opposed parties of whom claims the return to a more granular, dirty and dark graphics and who says to be definitely at ease with the design choice adopted by Blizzard. It appears however obvious that all those details enriching the scenes, the crumbling parapets of the paths within the dungeons, the plants and the ragged drapes lightened by candles would lose the best part of their raison d’etre if put in such monochrome palettes inclining to black.
The new artworks, other than providing cues on how the design effort works on a so graphically rich and complex title as Diablo III, help out to introduce the creature just added to the game bestiary: perhaps the Dune Thresher resembles too much certain giant sand worms hot in the Hollywood of the Nineties, nevertheless the introductory tale (that includes a short Flash animation of what should be the 3D model available in the game) clearly states that it isn’t the case to underestimate too much a close encounter with its jaws.
This post has been featured on Slashdot on September 21, 2008, producing on the blog a maximum daily peak of 8966 unique visitors and 10007 pageviews (source: LLOOGG). It could have done even better if the server hadn’t miserably crashed.
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5 Responses to “New Diablo III screenshots, design triumphs over blackness”
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I don’t mind Blizzard using a broader color palette. Judging from the screenshots, it looks great IMHO.
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Diablo I and II were 256 color games which some of us old schooler know looked best using darker colors to hide their lack in number.
D3 looks great, there were shiny colors in Diablo I and II
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Colors be damned, D1 and D2 were amazing games, if we get a fancy new engine and shiny colors to go with, by all means, I just need my crack!
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Agree
Well, Diablo 1 & 2 used to be thousands of colors, DirectX games, but anyway here now we have a very different stuff to deal with
If you’re on withdrawal, you could once again play D1 & DII waiting for the third. They are as funny as always, trust me
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Good web site, thanks.. Happy Ramadan for everyone..
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