Diablo 3

[TimberWolf]

If you were to go to Blizzard.com you will be greeted with a cover page introducing the newest game they are developing: Diablo 3.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/index.xml

I'm still looking through the website but it is using a 3D engine and has interactive background, as in you can knock down some walls onto the enemy killing them.

Take a look. Here is the storyline:

"It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain."

[XMEN Gambit]

Refresh my memory....

The end of D1 had a wide-open hole waiting for a sequel.

D2 took advantage of that, but IIRC did NOT leave a big fat loose end like the first, especially if you had the expansion. The 3 were defeated, and the world gem and their soulstones were destroyed, rather dramatically.

So I'm curious to know, plot-wise, how they grew D3 out of D2. Seems like most of the principals were kaput. I'm also curious to see what Blizzard thinks they can add to the genre since D1 and D2 spawned dozens of imitations and variations.

I think Deckard was the only survivor of Tristram, so why would he hang around there? And he was pretty aged at the time anyway, I'd think 20 more years would see him barely hanging on at all even without the events of D1 / D2.

[TimberWolf]

From what I have read the evil humans are trying to bring back Diablo with dark magic. Here is what I understand so far:

1. Deckard Cain is believed dead as he has vanished but instead has gone out researching some of the old folk lore of his people to see which others are true.
2. Deckard Cain didn't stay around Tristram until his research showed that there was more there than what had already been discovered and plundered or released.
3. The human followers of Diablo and his brothers are trying to use arcane powers to bring them back into the world. Apparently after all of the ransacking and destruction of the Tristram Monastery over the years that another demon still lies a sleep in there or reach from there that is awakened by a spell that summons a meter.
4. Other legends are appearing such as the Witch Doctor in response to a new developing evil.

From what I have read so far things that are new are:
1. Skills can be combined to form new attacks
2. Weapons and creatures can be enchanted by magic spells
3. More ways of customizing equipment and character
4. Gold is picked up in proximity insteady of clicking on it
5. Enemies drop health orbs instead of having potions
6. Potions quick keys now used by skills
7. Some traps use the environment against you
8. You can use the environment against the enemy

[Starmage21]

Some of the best bits of WoW and Diablo are being combined to make Diablo 3. Not a surprise considering when i first started playing WoW it felt very much like diablo 2.