The bleed effect is just ridiculous. Awesome in its spectacle, brilliant in its execution. It works like this: Diablo III's monk class plays as if he's stepped out of God of War, or any other console brawler. If he chains three punches in quick succession, he can set up a finishing move. One is a flashy flurry of strikes like something from the Pokemon cartoons - zipping through the air and hitting everything in range. You could finish your flurry with one epically violent slap - knocking your target backwards with full force through the scenery.
As one demon dies, another rushes in to take his place - it's Whack-a-Mole played with two mouse buttons and a warrior of unholy fury. Every creature gets a slap, a tickle and a stomp. Unless you want to be really, really clever, which is where the bleed effect comes in. Use this attack, and as a creature bleeds, it takes damage, its health bar ticking away to nothing. And if they die with the bleed still effective, they explode. The destruction is vicious, hilarious - a tsunami of gore. If you set two, maybe three bleeds running, you can time a chain reaction. Bubble Bobble, played with bile and bones. Diablo III is already gloriously, stupidly violent. It's already brilliant. But it won't be out until at least 2011.
Diablo III gameplay trailer
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Leading the Diablo team is Jay Wilson. He's scruffy in that game developer way: smarts hidden behind a ruff of messy greying hair. Jay has serious form. He came to Blizzard via Relic, after leading the development of Company of Heroes and the Dawn of War games. There, with his designers, he made a point of emphasising violence and destruction. Few who've played CoH will forget the crumpled torsos that remain after a well placed artillery shell hits infantry, or the gruesome animation of an ork shredded to pulp in the claw of a Dreadnought.
Jay and his team at Blizzard are applying a similar sense of physical 'pop' to the four Diablo III classes revealed so far. The Barbarian is beefcake central. He charges into battle and slaps the monstrous hordes about with hammer blows and straight punches. His special moves, like the cleave (it hits all monsters directly in front of him) are pure melee might, tearing foes in half, or sending their torsos and limbs skittering across the desert sands. The Wizard's magic missiles have a similar effect - when they strike a skeleton it doesn't just crumble in a preset animation. Instead, bones scatter as if hit by a truck. Only the Witch Doctor feels like a nimbler, weaker foil, but that's because he isn't the one doing the damage. He summons zombie dogs to do the damage for him. And zombie spiders that spawn from zombie corpses. And the now infamous wall of zombies.
As he talks, he becomes more animated - the excitement rising. "That's something I think Diablo and Diablo II did so well. If you play Diablo II again, do me a favour and go and start a sorceress. Go ahead and hit a Fallen on the head with a staff. It's the greatest sound in the world! It's a thonk, right in the side of his head. It's so good. We focus on that constantly. If it's not right, I give people no end of grief."
Comments
18 comments so far...
Wurmbollie on 30 Sep '09 said:
Aaaahhh! 2011?! I don't think I can wait that long.
The Icon on 30 Sep '09 said:
This has got to be a joke 2011. This game has been planned for years, then after years of delays they actaully make the game and now we have to wait to more year. There is building up interest and then there is taking the p**s
the688 on 30 Sep '09 said:
Perhaps if more people *bought* their games, they'd have money to hire more people, and get it done quickly..
*runs away before being burned at the stake*
The_KFD_Case on 30 Sep '09 said:
One acronym should suffice in regards to the money claim: "WoW".
Anyway, this certainly sounds brilliant to my sensibilities and I concur that 2011 does seem faaaaar away in regards to waiting for a game in anticipation. Oh well. Eventually it'll slip to the murky back part of your mind, mostly forgotten until it is triggered to arise in its full glory with the release of "Diablo III"!
kremlik on 30 Sep '09 said:
If activision didn't limit blizzard to two games a year it'll be out with SC2
Personally i think the delay will be good for blizzard at least if BattleNet mucks up with SC2 at least they only hurt the one IP not both - BNet's already a bit iffy with WoW stack their 'Xbox Live/PS2' things into the mix with SC2 - lets hope it works
richm74 on 30 Sep '09 said:
Come here you *shakes fist*
Bob, finish putting the kindling against the post, i'll go get him.
Dajmin on 30 Sep '09 said:
I'm way more interested in this than SC2. I was hoping Mythos would keep me going until D3, but obviously that wasn't meant to be.
Would be nice to have a new game come out that actually runs on my poor old PC. And maybe by 2011 I'll have got the cash together to upgrade
The_KFD_Case on 1 Oct '09 said:
Same here. I read recently that SC2 will apparently require mandatory online registration to activate the game. While I appreciate that for many, many people SC2's multiplayer features are part of the big attraction, for me it has always been about the single player campaign. Couple that with the three segment release of the game over what I can only imagine will be several years (and at presumably premium price,) and I'll pass.
Incidentally the lack of LAN support has also greatly displeased a number of SC fans. Hopefuly "Diablo III" won't have the stupid activation system, but since it's Activision I'm concerned...Come to think of it, I'm also concerned about where that leaves MW2. Maybe I will end up cancelling my pre-order for that game as well. I cancelled my "Borderlands" pre-order over the lack of info about what sort of DRM it comes with. "MW2" and "Borderlands" are my two most anticipated games for the remainder of the year, so it makes me an unhappy panda. At least "Borderlands" may dodge the DRM bullet since the developers seem to have a sane stance on it (i.e. pro-customer), but T2K Games do like their DRM.
Czechton on 6 Oct '09 said:
check out Torchight
falloutwarchief on 22 Dec '09 said:
Hey CVG is on Reddit.
Hi Reddit.
Camelbak93 on 26 Feb '12 said:
2011?! Atleast we get it in 2012! :p
SunStart2012 on 26 Feb '12 said:
wait so long time
SunStart2012 on 26 Feb '12 said:
okilLen2 on 26 Feb '12 said:
Need for speed, but in BLZ, speed is not need.
romeo686 on 27 Feb '12 said:
Time is coming, so we can forget past and now enjoy the game
789xander on 27 Feb '12 said:
Crazy bump haha. Really close compared to the earlier posts though. The wait doesn't seem as bad when you look at old posts.
jiyunfei233 on 27 Feb '12 said:
amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
makab on 29 Feb '12 said:
I really need to play!!