Diablo III - huh?

So it was Diablo III that was the big announcement that had been hyped out with just a few images and words. It must be good to be Blizzard (I mean, apart from all those hundreds of millions they make each month - those are also good), they don't even have to make their own advertising. They release a splash screen, revealing a bit each day here, drop a word about game announcement there, and press and fans do the rest.

Blizzard has a uncanny ability to keep things a secret. I mean, to do something like StarCraft 2 and no one had a idea until they announced it. And now the same thing with Diablo III. This also shed some different light on their purchase of the diablo3.com address earlier this year. Right under our noses!

Although I was both surprised and happy when I heard about it being D3, I wasn't really excited. I visited their homepage, read a bit about it, but still didn't feel that excitement I thought I would surely feel. And I have played both Diablo and Diablo II so it's not like I haven't been waiting for this.

I will buy the game, there no question about that. Still, I'm a bit disappointed. The game looks nice, but other than the graphics the game don't seem to have progressed much since Diablo II... 8 years ago. The game is still about ridiculous powerful heroes bashing uncounted monsters, gathering equipment from said monsters, only to be able to progress and kill even bigger monsters. I guess if something works, you shouldn't break it... but a little bit more innovation wouldn't hurt.

20 years after the end of D2 were back in Tristram (for the third time) and a comet come crashing down. Wait, wasn't that also in Warcraft III? Most probably D3 won't even be about Diablo any more as he stopped to be the center of the game in the D2 expansion. Just because you can make a third game and still sell it like ice cream in June doesn't mean you have to... well, maybe the stockholders disagree on that. But Blizzard can't just stick to the same game series all the time. The last time Blizzard created a entire new game that wasn't a expansion, sequel or game in the same universe, was 1998 with StarCraft.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe D3 will turn out to be really innovative, but I doubt it. It will be fun, I have no doubts about that, and I will probably enjoy hundreds of hours with my friends online. But still... Bill Roper and the rest at Flagship, come back to Blizzard!

I know what I want: World of StarCraft. Part StarCraft, part World of Warcraft, part EVE Online. People have wet their pants for less.