Anyone that's seen Diablo III footage knows that Blizzard's putting a little blood in the action-RPG sequel. All of that viscera will likely lead Blizzard to edit the game for certain international regions, according to lead designer Jay Wilson. "Definitely for regions like Germany and Australia, we will have to change blood if we're going to sell there," said Wilson to Wired. "And that's fine. Those are the standards for those regions, and we don't really have a problem with catering to what they need and what they want."

Blizzard has been willing to cater its games to meet the guidelines for... Read more

Battle.net developer Greg Canessa says that Blizzard is actively working on a LAN-like solution to include for Battle.net play in StarCraft II.

"We are working on solutions with regard to things we can do to maintain connectivity to Battle.net in some way, but also provide a great quality connection between players," said Canessa.

Blizzard recently announced that traditional LAN play would not be included in the game, with offline play only being allowed in the singleplayer campaign.

I asked Canessa whether the solution his team is working on might... Read more

Click, click, click. It's rare that a game is so instantly recognized by simple onomatopoeia. Diablo III has that instant recognition factor; playing the game, it is Diablo from the first hack.

At the same time, this isn't Diablo. It's flashier. It's faster. It's "more vibrant," as the team likes to put it. These changes were even more pronounced in this year's BlizzCon build, a tour of a desert area that included a playable version of the Monk class.

The recently announced Eastern fighter is like nothing seen in previous Diablo games. For the sake of Blizzard canon, the Monk from Diablo's Hellfire expansion must have been geriatric. He came to Tristram to live out his years in peace, but was forced out of his holy Lazyboy to get the demons of Hell off of his lawn, gosh darnit.

The difference between the old and new Monks is like that of Obi-Wan and Ewan McGreggor. Things on the screen are dead before you hear the sound of the click. The Seven Strikes ability, which sees the Monk zipping across the screen... Read more

If you want to see more of Diablo III's monk class than screenshots and dramatic cut scenes feast your eyes upon twelve minutes of solo and multiplayer monking.

Announced today at BlizzCon, the monk focuses on melee combat with staves and fist weapons, fueled by a combo system. Alas, Diablo 3 is not out until at least 2011.

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The media blitz of BlizzCon 2009 continues in the two videos below, which respectively detail the story and gameplay of Diablo III's just revealed Monk class.

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Also revealed today was word that Diablo III is not expected to arrive in 2010, which suggests that Blizzard's anticipated action-RPG won't be out until... Read more

Following the announcement of the holy Monk class for Diablo III, Blizzard detailed the character's skills during a BlizzCon panel.

According to Diablo 3 lead designer Jya Wilson, Blizzard liked the idea of the Monk because he's fast, "but is also fragile. That's a really interesting contradiction that we thought would make for good gameplay." The team referenced Diablo II's Assassin and World of Warcraft's Rogue in redesigning the class.

The Monk will be defined by its combo moves, holy magic, speed, and complementary skills. Wilson said that the Monk will be a bit harder to pick up for players, but that they didn't mind adding a class that required more skill in the early game.

Designer Wyatt Cheng then introduced several of the Monk's lightning-quick skills.

Way of the Hundred Fists: "The player is actually hitting the... Read more

Fresh out of BlizzCon are the first screenshots for Diablo 3's monk class, showing the melee master pummeling undead with staves, fist weapons and his bare fists.

Another entry in Blizzard's fictional writings of Abd al-Hazir retells the travellers first encounter with a monk.

The last weeks of autumn had settled upon Ivgorod, and the first breath of winter had crept into the air. As night fell and the sun dipped below the horizon, I was all too grateful to take refuge in a tavern. As I entered, I noted a certain tension in the room... Read more

Much to the chagrin of those who were expecting Diablo III to arrive next year, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has confirmed that just-revealed World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm and StarCraft II are the two titles the company expects to hit in 2010.

Morhaime made the revelation while talking with BlizzCon Live hosts Geoff Keighley and Kat Hunter, with more details on Blizzard's projects expected as BlizzCon continues.

Update: Screenshots and a splash of backstory are now available for your titillation.

The latest class announced for Blizzard's Diablo III is the Monk, a character first introduced in the original Diablo's 'Hellfire' expansion.

An image of the Monk leaked early on the Korean Blizzard site, beating the official announcement at BlizzCon.

"It's a class that has its roots in old school fantasy, but we believe you haven't seen it quite like this before," said Blizzard's Chris Metzen during the official unveiling. "I'm very proud to introduce to you, the new Diablo 3, with all of its open-handed, Tiger-strike packed fury, the Monk."

A cinematic using the Diablo III engine was hsown, with a bald-headed, staff-wielding Monk battling a fire-shooting demon. The beareded Monk used its bare hands near the end, finishing off the demon with an open-palmed attack.

Gameplay footage showed the Monk using quick jabs and punches to attack enemies, with several attacks that hit many monsters in quick succession.

Despite the delay of StarCraft II into 2010, Blizzard says the release of Diablo III will not be affected by the shift.

"I will confirm that the move of StarCraft into 2010 does not affect the release schedules of any of our other games," said Blizzard president Mike Morhaime.

When asked whether that means Diablo III and StarCraft II could both be released in 2010, as Blizzard had previously said to expect a major Blizzard release each year, Morhaime's response implied that possibility.

"We haven't announced any release dates on any future title. And I'll also reiterate that the [move of] StarCraft into next year does not impact the schedule," said Morhaime, who then, with a slight laugh, added: "And so it would be correct to conclude that you could expect two releases of Blizzard next year. But I will not make any conclusion as to what those titles will be."

The final allotment of tickets to Blizzard's upcoming BlizzCon convention will go on sale tomorrow at 10am PDT, according to the company.

The pricey stubs cost $125 apiece, and can be purchased on the BlizzCon website. Don't forget to read up on the ticket queue system in advance.

As a reminder, the show takes place on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California. Attendees and viewers of the Pay Per View DirecTV and webcast streams will all receive Space Marine pets for World of Warcraft.

New Diablo 3 media released today brings about the return of the Fallen, the lowly red devils from previous Diablo titles.

In line with the rest of the Diablo 3 enemies, there are many variants of the spindly creatures. The below are of the Lunatic variety, "enraged, oversized fallen creatures are bloated seemingly to the point of bursting."

In addition to the Lunatics, the standard Imps and summoning Shamans will return, along with a larger Overseer that "drives his smaller impish charges into a frenzy with his ape-like leaping and growling," and Hounds that are "found among groups of the fallen and are utilized as guard animals."

Check out a video of the Fallen below: ... Read more

Blizzard today--April 1--announced the Archivist, Diablo 3's newest "player class."

Hailing from the dark and dingy studies of Westmarch, the bedraggled Archivist fights not only to save Sanctuary's future but to preserve its past.

Observing the Archivist's powerful Lorenado spell--which chokes enemies with a swirling flurry of pages--we cannot help but recall former World of Warcraft director Jeffrey Kaplan's remarks at the Game Developers Conference that "we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it."

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The Archivist's other powers include the powerful Quest Bolt spell, which... Read more

A few new screenshots of Diablo 3's user interface accompanied Blizzard's latest BlizzCast. Still no word on a release date for D3, but the shots are mighty tempting.

I'm already thinking about customization--with a chipped sapphire here and a hydra rune there, I could very well end up with the prettiest Barbarian that Sanctuary has ever seen.

Thanks to Shacker bighirst for the tip.

Former Blizzard North VP and original Diablo producer Bill Roper has chimed in on the Diablo 3 art style debate in an interview with VideoGamer, stating that he prefers a "grittier" look to the series rather than Blizzard's current, arguably lighter approach.

"You know, I liked the darker, grittier [style]," said Roper, who chalked up the style of the sequel to the contrary philosophies of Blizzard's Irvine studio and the former home of Diablo, the now-defunct Blizzard North.

"It makes complete sense to me where they went because they basically took the Diablo universe and then approached it from the Blizzard Irvine stance for the visuals," he said.

"That's the way they approach things. It wasn't that I looked at it and went, 'Oh my god that looks terrible.' I was like, that looks like Blizzard. The guys in... Read more

Blizzard has released nine fresh screenshots for Diablo 3, including three that introduce a new species of monster: the Unburied.

"Being born out of pits of human misery, these beings feed on human suffering," writes Blizzard of the monsters (pictured below). "Wherever bodies are dumped together unceremoniously, the unburied may rise."

Developer Blizzard has provided the first Diablo 3 update of the new year, issuing a few new screenshots from the anticipated and yes, still undated PC action-RPG sequel.

And please, don't worry about that pink effect. After all, it'll go nicely with the purple ones.

Some new Diablo 3 screenshots emerged from developer Blizzard today, showing off a number of sparkly attacks and ominious environments. There's no word as to when action-RPG sequel will see its long-awaited PC release, but rest assured, it's coming.

Diablo III "will definitely be out after StarCraft II," said Blizzard design VP Rob Pardo.

Pardo, in an extensive interview with Wired, also shed light on the company's plans for DRM and digital distribution. "Battle.net really is our most effective DRM," he said, adding, "That's really kinda been the thing that's always saved us from a lot of the PC piracy that I think hurts a lot of other single-player-only games."

Blizzard plans to similarly rely on its multiplayer match-making service to protect its interests with StarCraft II and Diablo III after their release. "No, there's no particular plans for that," said Pardo in response to a question about the games "phoning home" to check their authenticity with Blizzard servers each time before launching. "If you want to use an analogy--we take an approach that's more similar to Steam than EA, let's say," he explained.

As for Steam itself, Pardo stopped short of shooting down the idea of launching Blizzard products on the service, stating that Blizzard for now plans to stick with its own digital distribution service. "I think we're probably currently in the mindset that we're going to digitally distribute just on Battle.net. I don't know if our strategy will change in the future. I think it's something that we're just trying to get really good at doing ourselves for now," he said.

As expected, we learned a lot of new things about Diablo III at BlizzCon. And as many of these bite-sized details got swept away in all the excitement, I figured it was time to update our massive Diablo III guide.

In addition to tons of new videos and screenshots, we've added plenty of information on the new Wizard class (including her entire current skill tree), details on the newly announced Skill Rune system, and a note on a major change to the attribute system, among many other updates.

Also included is new information on which way Blizzard is leaning on the issue of console ports, subscription fees, and other key development decisions.... Read more