Gaming Today |
- BlizzCon 2010: SC2 Heart of the Swarm Concept Art Revealed (PICS)
- BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Skill Runes” Explained
- BlizzCon 2010: The Metal Battles Lich King at Tenacious D Concert (VIDEO)
- BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Traits” Explained
- BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Skills” Update
- BlizzCon: 2010 Starcraft 2 Multiplayer Panel Talks Strategy and Balance
- Diablo III “Demon Hunter” Class – Everything You Need to Know
- BlizzCon 2010: Emerald Dream, Cataclysm Fixes in WoW’s Future
| BlizzCon 2010: SC2 Heart of the Swarm Concept Art Revealed (PICS) Posted: 24 Oct 2010 08:51 PM PDT
The earlier portion of the panel was mostly devoted to art for the upcoming StarCraft 2 official mods, which were announced at BlizzCon. Check out the official Blizzard panel recap for more art and info.
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| BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Skill Runes” Explained Posted: 24 Oct 2010 08:04 PM PDT
In Diablo II, you could attach “Runes” to weapons for various awesome effects. As we learned at the “Hero Emerges” panel at BlizzCon, Runes are returning to Diablo III, but they function very differently. Blizzard hadn’t discussed the Runes system in over a year, so there was a lot to learn. As Julian Love, Lead Technical Artist on Diablo III explained, Runes have been transformed into “Skill Runes.” Instead of augmenting the powers of weapons, now you attach Runes (like gems) to your skills to alter what they do, and how they look. There are five different “flavors” of Runes in Diablo III: Crimson, Indigo, Obsidian, Golden, Alabaster. Each of these Rune types bring an entirely different flavor of change to whatever skill they are applied to. Additionally, each Rune can be leveled up 7 levels, for varying degrees of intensity. The higher the Rune rank, the more crazy the skill becomes. For example, the Wizard’s Magic Missile Skill: when unaltered, it shoots one missile per cast. With the level 1 Indigo Rune, it shoots 2 missiles per cast. With a level 7 Indigo Rune, it shoots multiple missiles per cast (below). To illustrate how each of the Rune types affect a given skill, let’s look at the “Plague of Toads” spell for the Witch Doctor. The Crimson Rune lights all of the frogs on Fire. The Golden Rune reduces the cost, so you can have more frogs. The Alabaster Rune causes the frogs to explode, and emit a blinding gas. The Indigo Rune adds a “toad blizzard” as Julian Love described it, a rain of toads. Finally, the Obsidian Rune spawns one giant toad that eats monsters.
I think I have to end this post right here. Nothing can follow a giant monster-eating toad. One last detail on Runes. Obviously they will add bunch of possible build types, given all the different skill/Rune combinations. But how big is that number, you ask? Julian Love told us. Ready? 96,886,969,344. That’s ninety-six billion, and change.
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| BlizzCon 2010: The Metal Battles Lich King at Tenacious D Concert (VIDEO) Posted: 24 Oct 2010 07:42 PM PDT
Hand it to Blizzard — those guys know how to throw a two-day nerdgasm. Wrapping up the closing ceremonies for BlizzCon 2010 Saturday was Tenacious D, a band the likes of which has never been seen, and it was just as theatrical and awesome as we’ve come to expect from Jack Black and Kyle Gass. In tow to play some of the band’s hits — including “F— Her Gently,” “Tribute” and “Dio” from their album Tenacious D and “Kickapoo” and “Beelzeboss” from the movie Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, as well as at least one new track – was Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. It was an unexpected treat, even though Grohl and the D are long-time friends (Grohl gave a cameo as Satan in Pick of Destiny). Grohl and his awesome drum work — which at points was epic enough to drown out even Jack Black’s crooning — were not the only guests of the evening. For PoD‘s “The Metal,” a guy in a big silver robot minotaur costume came out to do kung-fu as The Metal, as Black lyrically described the heavy metal genre’s defeat of all other forms of music. The Metal final opponent was a fully decked-out Lich King, the major villain of World of Warcraft’s last expansion. After getting his ass handed to him by The Metal, Black and the two warriors did a quick kick-line dance. Black and Gass did “Master Exploder,” which had so many hilarious moments that the pair actually had to pretend to play it; did their classic five-minute band breakup routine that included “Dude, I Totally Miss You” from PoD; and even battled Satan (not Dave Grohl) on stage for “Beelzeboss” before leading into “Tribute.” It was the perfect wrap to the convention; a 16-year-old nerd’s version of a Disney on Ice performance. I don’t know if the concert alone was worth BlizzCon’s $150 ticket, but it was a pretty damn cool door prize for attending.
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| BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Traits” Explained Posted: 24 Oct 2010 06:36 PM PDT
At the “Hero Emerges” (that hero being the Demon Hunter) panel at BlizzCon, Diablo III Game Director Jay Wilson gave a brief presentation on “Traits,” and how they can be differentiated from skills. Traits are basically class-specific “passive skills.” They are “passive” in the sense that they do not award actual combat abilities, but instead augment existing core attributes. They do things like increase armor, resistances, proficiencies in certain spell types, etc. Traits have an entirely separate management screen from skills, and they have very cool, class-specific titles like Inner Rage for the Barbarian (increases power), and Prismatic Cloak for the Wizard (increases armor).
Each class has 30 traits, and you can spend 1-5 points on each trait (which further increases its effectiveness). The catch is you only spend points on traits every other level, so choose wisely. Further combating the fact that “passive skills” can sound boring, Wilson explained that they’re making a big effort to “make numbers cool.” To do this, each trait upgrade will feature a significant increase in statistics. Don’t expect to spend a whole trait point for “+.5 increase in armor.” The numbers will be 50%, 100%, big fun numbers.
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| BlizzCon 2010: Diablo III “Skills” Update Posted: 24 Oct 2010 05:53 PM PDT
The Diablo III “Skills” system has progressed quite a bit since last year’s BlizzCon, and we attended the “Hero Emerges” panel (which also focused on the Demon Hunter class) to get the scoop on how you’ll acquire new a$$-kicking abilities in the game. Skills UI MetamorphosisThe first iteration of the Diablo III Skills UI was, as Lead Content Designer Kevin Martens put it, “unwieldy and overwhelming.” It displayed too many options at once, and “encouraged players to spend their skill points too thinly.” They needed to refine the system so that it was more accessible.
The next step was a tabbed system (below). It was nice in the sense that it compartmentalized all of the skills into tabs, and was very organized. However, you couldn’t see all of your options at once. Also, since all of the skills were walled off in the tabs, players would often not level up skills hidden in the other tabs.
Next, they went with a “list” approach (below). This was a big improvement right away. You can see all of the skills you have on the right, and all the skills you and upgrade too on the right in the sidebar.
Finally, here’s the current Skills UI (below). It’s basically the same “list” approach, but the right hand side is a lot bigger, so you can see all of your options for new skills much more clearly. Kevin Martens explained that their intention here is to make it easier to spec out your build, and also figure out to “respec” if you want.
New Class SkillsDiablo III Technical Designer Wyatt Cheng took over to walk us through a bunch of new skills they’ve implemented for the different classes. Barbarian Wizard Witch Doctor Monk
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| BlizzCon: 2010 Starcraft 2 Multiplayer Panel Talks Strategy and Balance Posted: 24 Oct 2010 05:51 PM PDT
A panel of experts which included Dustin "Terrible, Terrible Damage" Browder and David Kim sat down to give us their take on the multiplayer experience. They started off talking strategy, saying that many players ask them how to improve their micro. Average players see the pros kiting groups of Zealots with Marauders or hitting High Templars with EMP's and they want to be able to do this kind of stuff too. But David Kim says that too many players are not focused on enough on their macro game. He pointed out that no matter how good your micro is, if your enemy's army is much larger than yours, you're still going to lose. The conversation turned to balance and the group brought out the statistics. While many players are yelling that the game is imbalanced it turns out that across all the North American Leagues, all races have a fairly balanced win/loss ratio against the other races. That is to say, no race has a 60% win ratio or higher against any other race. Dustin said that while they've been hearing clamors of "Stimmed Marauders Need Nerfing!" they have no plans to do so, the statistics simply don't support it. As if to emphasize this point, NexGenius would practically put on a clinic on destroying stimmed Marauders with Protoss in the Blizzcon Starcraft 2 tournament. It's important to note that although the statistics were balanced across the North American leagues, there was a possible imbalance appearing at very high levels in Korea. The data they are getting suggests that Protoss might have a slight edge against Terran and the panel has assured us they are investigating. Finally they turned to the audience for questions to get some dialogue with their fans. One big revelation that came of this was when fan asked why they couldn't have customizable key bindings. The reason: "It would have delayed the game's release." They are in fact working on that very problem right now. Though no timeframe was given there will be customizable key bindings in the future of Starcraft 2, much to the delight of the fans attending the panel.
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| Diablo III “Demon Hunter” Class – Everything You Need to Know Posted: 24 Oct 2010 03:41 PM PDT
If you’re looking for a bunch of information on the Demon Hunter, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve highlighted some of our key takeaways (along with concept art) from the panel for you below. If you want more info, check out Blizzard’s official exhaustive panel recap here, the official Demon Hunter class page, and you’ll probably also want to take a look at my hands-on preview of the Demon Hunter. The Panelists:
General OverviewFrom the get-go, the team knew they wanted a convential ranged class in the Demon Hunter, but with a twist: she would sport a bounty-hunter vibe, specializing in gadgets and traps. This would fill out a “natural archetype” in the available classes, and would fit well within the Diablo universe. But that wasn’t enough. The team wanted her to be able to do “fantastical” moves, so they gave her access to “shadow magic.” This is what powers her (very, very useful) Vault skill–a acrobatic dance-dodge that allows for fast escapes. She is also more knowledgeable about demons than anyone else in Diablo, and she’ll do anything it takes to hunt them down–even dabble in dark magic. Artistic MetamorphosisArt Director Christian Lichtner took over at this point, to discuss the Demon Hunter’s artistic metamorphasis. Initially, the Demon Hunter looked very, very different. She was initially a “woodland ranger,” almost like Aragorn.
This was nowhere near “deadly enough.” To compensate, they added a strong melee influence to the Demon Hunter, in the form of short swords and daggers. The problem here, was she didn’t really feel like a “ranged” class anymore. She was changing into a full on melee class. It still wasn’t right.
Demonic Demon Hunter?The next batch of concepts for the Demon Hunter transformed her into an actual demon…that hunts demons. The problem with this concept that emerged right away, was that Diablo characters “need to be human.” You need to be able to identify with the characters, on a human level.
Their next solution? Make her “half-demon.” She then looked like an assassin, but with a big ugly “demon arm,” which she could use in melee situations. They were getting closer. Next, they focused on her armor, transforming the regular assassin look with the sleek, tight-fitting leather armor she currently has.
Finally, they got rid of the demon arm, gave her dual-crossbows, her cowl, and solidified her image as a dark, predatory, sexy bounty hunter. Below is the final concept they landed on.
Character DesignPaul Warzecha, Lead Character Artist on D3, took over at this point. First, Paul explained why they went with a “sexy” look for the Demon Hunter. They had the disciplined Monk, the creepy Witch Docor, the barbaric Barbarian, the Wizard–basically, they felt they needed someone who was physically attractive. Paul assured the women the crowd: “Don’t worry. We’re working the male version of the Demon Hunter, and he’ll be equally attractive.” Gearing Up:
The Demon Hunter’s other main areas of upgradeability are her scarf, her legs, and her arm guards–which help her silouette pop a little more. Demon Hunter PsychologyLeonard Boyarsky, Lead World Designer, walked us through the Demon Hunter’s psychology, or as he put it, her “lore.” What drives a Demon Hunter, you ask? Simple: her thirst for revenge, and her unquencheable desire to hunt and kill demons. They can come from any walk of life, but they are all bound by this obssession. Demon Hunters are not born, they are made. When the Demon Hunter was young, her town was destroyed by demons, and she was recruited and trained by other Demon Hunters. She has no home. She’s nomadic, and spends all her time chasing down demons. She actually wants demons to “feel fear,” the same fear that demons inflict on humans. Furthermore, the Demon Hunter is the only class that truly understands what is at stake in the spiritual battle occuring within Sanctuary. Ther other classes have their own reasons for fighting the forces of evil, most for personal gain. The Demon Hunter, though, fully understands the gravity of the situation, and will stop at nothing to ensure that Diablo does not gain a foothold in Sanctuary. Demon Hunter SkillsWyatt Cheng, Technical Game Designer on D3, took over to discuss the Demon Hunter’s skills. Here’s a brief description of each of the skills he highlighted. You’ll find descriptions of how some of these work in actual gameplay in my full hands-on article as well. Bola Shot: Vault: Spike Trap: Grenades: Multishot:
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| BlizzCon 2010: Emerald Dream, Cataclysm Fixes in WoW’s Future Posted: 24 Oct 2010 01:56 PM PDT
Here’s Blizzard’s main message of every panel at BlizzCon 2010 this weekend: “We’re thinking about it and we want to do it, we just don’t know when.” Lots of questions that came up at various Q&A panels boiled down to that — specifically when talking about making various things sync when it comes to Cataclysm, the new World of Warcraft expansion due out Dec. 7. Cataclysm fundamentally changes the world of Azeroth, rips up the continents, destroys some locations, and brings players back to a lot of places they’ve visited in the past. So sweeping are the changes that the locals in other expansions, Outland and Northrend, should have been vastly altered as well. Right now, they aren’t. This was addressed at a couple of Friday’s panels, and it boils down to a time element. Going back and reworking those two huge regions is going to take a lot of work, and Blizzard just hasn’t been able to do it yet. But it’s in the plans — sooner or later, a properly f-ed up version of those two areas will be patched into WoW. Narratively, though, it might require a stretch for players, bouncing back two years in Wow’s lore in order to make sense. Chris Metzen, vice president of creative development, and Alex Afrasiabi, lead world designer, spoke about it at their Quests and Lore panel Friday. To make a ruined Northrend and Outland make sense, the story will have to be out of sync with current lines. And it’s probably going to be a while before players get to go there anyway. Speaking of going new places, Afrasiabi said during the WoW Open Q&A on Saturday that yes, Emerald Dream is going to show up in the future. He wouldn’t say when, or if it’ll be an expansion in its own right or a location patched in. But it’s coming. For those uninitiated, the Emerald Dream (and the corrupted version, the Emerald Nightmare [which Afrasiabi made a point to mention, so it's in the cards, too]) is included in WoW lore as a sort of spirit world from which sprung the creation of the world. It’s like the blueprint for Azeroth, and while it’s mentioned in WoW’s story, nobody’s ever been there. But players would like to go. Blizzard has heard those pleas, but adding in the Emerald Dream is a matter of narrative cohesion as well as the time to do it, Afrasiabi said. So basically, it’ll show up when it shows up. Another thing: Blizzard is already looking down the pipe at WoW’s next expansion, and given the nature of Afrasiabi’s comments — he knew Blizzard would be doing the Emerald Dream, but he seemed genuinely unsure of when it would be feasible — it doesn’t seem like it’s the crux of expansion No. 4. Could be sooner, could be later, but I wouldn’t expect World of Warcraft: Emerald Dream to be on sale at stores in two years.
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