Blizzard to Announce Diablo 3 on May 19
Well, that’s my guess anyway: we know they’ve been working on Diablo 3 forever. Of course, they could have scrapped it indefinitely after closing Blizzard North, or even just rebooted, in which case it might not be ready for unveiling.
That, plus the fact that the new title is being unveiled at a massive Starcraft event in South Korea, lends quite a bit of credence to the rumors that it’s Starcraft 2. I’d personally be a little afraid to attend the unveiling: a new Starcraft could cause massive riots across the country (and if it’s just a World of Warcraft expansion, the riots will be worse– unless the new playable race is Zerg).
Who else can cause this kind of anticipation for the announcement of their next title? Amazing.
(In case you’re curious: I’m hoping for Starcraft 2.)
May 9th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
I’m also hoping for starcraft II. Despite the many many knockoffs and other attempts at RTS games by many companies, nothing was (eventually) as balanced (without factions simply being re-skinned versions of each other) or put together as well as starcraft. Which I should also throw in, match-making and finding servers before blizznet was also a headache (although, for those of you that played Myth: the Fallen Lords, bungie.net had a decent system back in the day).
IF it happens that SC:2 is the announcement, I’m wondering if they’ll continue along the lines of WC:3 - smaller armies, big hero units w/xp and levels. I guess they started this style a loooong time ago in their single-player campaign modes (remember the heroes from Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal?), but WC:3 really changed the RTS landscape from having overwhelming force to having smaller, well-balanced armies with some killer units/abilities/counters. I personally prefer the overwhelming force methods of hydralisk drops and carrier parking…
I’m not sure if I could get that excited about diablo 3. I’m already playing a game where I kill stuff for hours looking for blue and purple drops, and trying to get that perfect gem to socket my weapon with, all while trying to perfect my skill tree. Granted, I don’t kill stuff at the numbers, speed or mindlessness that diablo has traditionally offered…
May 9th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Interesting point about D3. Killing tons of dudes is the big difference it has from something like WoW, but the loot and level progression of WoW is very similar to Diablo. D3 would need to be very different from D2 in order to still be interesting.
1v1 Starcraft had a nice mix between small armies and big armies. You could often end a game with a tiny Dark Templar rush– just a couple of guys. Or 6 Zerglings. On the flip side, you could have major high-economy battles with tons of Dark Swarmed hydras, or masses of stimmed marines backed by a handful of siege tanks. Good times.
While I’d love to see Starcraft remade with modern interface improvements (and rebalanced to accommodate them: smart autocasts, no 12-unit max, etc. would really change the balance), I’m wary that a Starcraft 2 would make them so scared of screwing things up, that it would basically be, well… Starcraft remade with modern interface improvements. More of a Starcraft 1.5.
When Starcraft: Ghost was in development, the multiplayer component got me really excited about Battlefield: Starcraft. A class-based Starcraft team vs. team shooter would be so awesome.
May 9th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Well, if there is one thing I both fear and respect from blizzard, it is their willingness to patch early and often. So I would hope that they would aim high with whatever title they are announcing, although if they managed to keep the complete revamp patches to a minimum that would be nice.
I was sad to see that SC:Ghost was cancelled - I also thought that a SC class-based shooter would be fun, hopefully with player-interactable larger scale battle elements (I was really hoping I could call in shelling from seige tanks or hit the laser for “nuclear launch detected”).
May 9th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Siege Tanks would be a good vehicle for all the noobs to fight over. “I want in! No, mine! Ah, tk! tk!”