Diablo III is for real

[Kevin]

Here you go:

‘Diablo III’ Producer Justifies Controversial Art Direction: ‘Color Is Your Friend’

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/07/02/...-art-direction/

And I don't have a problem with bright in the outside world. Having stuff to contrast with does help. The issue is that even the "dark" dungeons aren't because they are too smooth. I'm coming around on this, even watching the gameplay video, the transition from the dungeon to the outside didn't really feel like much of a transition.

Some of the fan mock-ups on stuff show that it wouldn't be hard to make the dungeons better. I agree that stuff is too clean. Even for the outside world. http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7807/itshouldrh5.jpg the bottom set of images. All I'm asking for is to make the stone look more like what the fan did. I'd let them leave the rest of the environment alone. But you make the stones look like what the fan did and then you are actually using the contrast they claim they want.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l318/fro...ke/Diablo31.jpg is another great one. The interview claimed they wanted the detials to be clearer. While this fan mock up is a bit too dark, the foot on the bridge and cobbles on the bridge pop at me way more than in the original. Yes you lose some of the detail on the side but a lot of that comes from the fact the whole image got a mask and the whole image didn't need it. The spell effects should be just as bright as in the original and they could make them that way in the engine.

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/1681/12...22122wu5oq6.jpg is again another easy example. The whole image has the mask on it, but I would just want it on the stones. I'd be fine with the zombies looking like they did in the original but you make the stone look more like stone and I'm way happier and I think Blizzard will be closer to what they claim they want with contrast too.

There is nothing wrong with color, but the over stylized and EVERYTHING being clean doesn't really give you any contrast. I'm even fine, like I said in earlier posts, with some "dungeon" levels having the current clean look, because they should and it would make the big blood stain on the floor have more effect.

Right now Blizzard is trying to do all the contrast with blue/green/orange vs grey it seems. Not much there especially when it's all smoothed out and has the same texture feel. It doesn't have to be that way and I think the game is better if it isn't. I can live with the slighly chunkier, out of proportion stuff but it's the texturing that is getting me the more I look at it.

Oh well.


As other have mentioned the sound and gameplay changes between classic and II had more to do with the lost feel and they are adopting more of that because it reaches a bigger audience.

People like shopping in D2 more than they liked having to try and position themselve so that their friends weren't shooting them in D1. Of course the fact that one persons system reported one set of player positions and ther others a different set is what hurt multiplayer the most in D1. When I look at my wifes screen and we are both in different spots than on my screen and we are playing on a LAN and machines way faster than what D1 needed it hurt stuff.

Blizzard is correct in that the D2 model of just smash it all up while shopping, will sell better than the D1 style of think before you go around that corner, but it doesn't mean I can't pine for that. It also doesn't mean, that like Pete said, that I don't want the D2 style some days either. But since I've been playing a fair bit of WoW which still has way more to do with what gear you have than how well you use it (though TBC helped some with this) I'm not sure how much D3 will appeal other than playing with friends because I'm getting a little tired of the whole shopping for virtual items by killing mobs that are mostly a non threat or that are a threat but you need to deal with 24 other people, only 8 or 9 of whom you really like or know, model. D3 looks like it will get rid of the you have to have 24 other people, but it won't get rid of the shopping.


Oddly enough I've been playing a fair bit of M.U.L.E on my C64 emulator lately because it's still got fun gameplay and I'm getting more satisfaction from it than from some more modern games. :)