I would be more excited for D3 than another flipping MMO. I never got into WoW, its just like all other MMOs, grinding.

Also I am not sure how much sense it would be to make a SC MMO because it would really just take away from WoW, you would lose a lot of the people who only have time to play one that are already playing WoW. Yes, a lot of people would get both, but that would die out soon and it would pull away from WoW. It would make more sense to put out a D3 that is free and pull in the crowd who don't want to pay for multiplayer game and don't have the time to dedicate to it.

For me anything that they release that is not in the Diablo franchise at this point is a slap in the face for Diablo fans.

If Warcraft and Starcraft get updates and Diablo gets nothing again, it will be a sad day indeed.

I agree here. WoW is the cash generator for the company. They need to use the profits there and expand the other franchises without stepping on WoW's ability to mint money.

Make D3 free online play but with pay upgrades for content or better elite uber loot. They need to get rid of the bots and item shops that ruined D2 once and for all by having their own legit item shop.

Here's hoping to D3, the first was good fun and D2 was one of the best ever. I just don't think it will be the Lich King, that seems so obvious and "blah" to me.

Understatement of the year.

Here's the latest image. Notice the winking smiley face "rune"

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2...ndahalfiw1.jpg

It's Diablo III, looks like Gaming Steve was right.

And the winner is:

http://www.blizzard.com/us/splash.html

too slow haha

http://eu.blizzard.com/diablo3/

Gameplay footage link is on here.

New class is the witch doctor. Pretty cool.

The gameplay footage looks awesome. One small nitpick I have is that I wish the corpses of slain enemies didn't disappear. They stayed permanently before in the older games, and it was awesome to kill a legion of enemies and see the corpses all over the place.

Edited to add:

Just noticed on the FAQ on the Blizzard site that it says there will only be five character classes with the barbarian and witch doctor being the only two confirmed so far.

Five classes kind of sucks. I wish all the D2 classes would return, but that won't be possible. There will most likely be an expansion pack that adds new classes just like there was for D1 and D2, but five classes for the base game is disappointing.

Any speculation on what the other three classes will be?

I am guessing the necromancer will probably be gone since the witch doctor seems to have most of his powers. Necromancer was my favorite class too. I love raising armies of the undead.

I hope the druid comes back. That was my second favorite class. I am a werewolf fanatic.

A new class that I would really like to see would be some kind of vampire class. Playing as a vampire would pwn all.

I wish I was in Paris :(

Meanwhile, coolest CG candles EVER.

Diablo 3! Now Blizzard is 2 for 3 since I hate Warcraft. They've won me over again! Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3!

Now Blizzard, make a new IP and you may rival Valve as my favorite game developer! Don't forget digital distribution!

2011 can't come soon enough.

Liver, how does that Crow taste?

Heh, the Blizzard Store is already set up for digital distribution now, at least with the older games. You can create an account, enter in your CD-Key, and download any of the previous games. D2 wasn't available before but is now.

Really?! I gotta find my Diablo 2 and Starcraft cases.

Gameplay Video
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Continued..
<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nk1NLdhBqEA"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nk1NLdhBqEA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

God it looks soo amazing.

Where did you hear 2011?

I want to play this game now.

This is Blizzard. 2011 sounds about right.

Who said PC gaming is dying? :p

Looks fucking awesome. Gonna go pre-order the CE now. :p

I was trying to be optimistic.

D2 defined grinding. Endless Cow, Baal, & Meph runs every 5 minutes... that's all that's left getting a char to a decent level.

D3 looks pretty, but I hope they come up with a cure for the endless grinding.

Yea but WoW you had pay for and if you didn't keep up or play 12 hours a day you were screwed and left behind. At least in D2 you could play by yourself, I didnt mind the grinding in D2, was a lot more fun than WoW if you ask me.

I think I will predict D3 comes out 1 year after SC2.

Not quite sure I understand this one? What do you mean by screwed and left behind? You can progress at your own pace and there is tons of stuff to do solo. If you are getting left behind by your friends, well it sounds like you need to tell them to play less than 12 hours a day. WoW can be a very casual MMO if you don't want to bother with end game raiding. Even then, there are plenty of casual raiding guilds that only raid for a couple hours a night for a few days a week.

I haven't played in 2 years, I stopped around level 30 or so, got bored. When I was playing it was MUCH harder to solo, especially with certain characters. I am not gonna get into a debate about this because I really don't care. I would take D2 and hopefully D3 grinding over WoW any day, that is my point.

Well your point is kind of moot since what you are stating isn't true any more. Even back at release soloing was never that difficult.

Anyway, definitely looking forward to Diablo 3. I really hope it comes out before 2010.

SC2 and Diablo 3 both being released in 2009....I don't see it happening.

Regardless I still would disagree with you on the ease of soloing. Maybe in the early levels but once you got later was a lot harder, especially depending on what type of character you were. You could level a lot easier with a Hunter than some others.

I agree, they wouldn't do this. They would want to capitalize on there profits and releasing 2 games, even if they are of a different genre close to each other wouldn't work well.

Maybe back at launch some classes, like Priests, Warriors, Paladins had a slower time levelling, wouldn't call it hard. Nowadays though those classes can all put out some pretty good amounts of damage and they level just as quick as most other classes if they are specced right.

Hmm, for some reason I assumed that Starcraft 2 was coming out at the end of the year.

It was rumored to be released on Dec 3, 2008, but it looks like it will be in 2009 now.

OMG.

Cow level runs. kill everything but make sure not to kill the king!

Not sure what you're talking about. I said "Diablo 3 Bitches!" months ago! ;)