One showing green, grassy fields, the other three showing dark, dingy dungeons. As someone who never got into Diablo at all, gotta say, it's a shame the whole thing's not outside under a blue sky. Diablo mechanics with a Sega Rally aesthetic would be just the kind of thing to get me onboard.

You Will So Hate Blizzard When They Announce The Next Diablo III Class

When you can upset untold scores of internet dickheads with your game's colour palette, it's safe to say when you start messing with your game's important stuff - like character classes - you're in line for some pure, white-hot rage. And that's exactly what Blizzard are preparing themselves for when the next Diablo III class is revealed, lead designer Jay Wilson telling Videogamer:

All the barbarian players are delighted and all the necromancers hate us. I understand, I don't begrudge them that. I would hate me too! But what I would say is that when we announce the next class, which is quite similar to a previous class, then all those players will hate us too. You can't make everybody happy, but I think when the game finally come out players will find there's a good class for them, one they will love as much as the ones that came before. And if they don't, I absolutely promise that in the expansions we'll consider bringing back old classes.

You'd best stand by that promise, Jay. The Agonast does not abide character class tinkering.

Next Diablo 3 class will make players hate Blizzard [Videogamer]

This is getting tons of notice over on Battleforums, which quotes the ubiquitous Anonymous Source (he does get around), this one "from inside Blizzard," as saying that StarCraft 2's development will be "largely postponed" until Diablo III is ready to go.

Mr. (or Mrs.) Source says StarCraft 2's dev team is comprised of "a minuscule amount of people" compared to the current Diablo III team. Pretty clear which baby was gonna get its milk first all along, I'd figure. Blizzard hasn't said anything officially about the rumor. Sounds like a good rumor, doesn't really defy reasonable expectations. While it doesn't exactly fix a release date for you, it does let StarCraft players know not to hold their breath waiting.

Diablo 3 Release Date Before StarCraft 2 [Battleforums]

Blizzard's busy working on a major upgrade for its online gaming service Battle.net. And that upgrade is definitely taking Blizzard's eagerly awaited Diablo III into consideration. Here's what Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has to say:

Diablo III will have its own unique needs in terms of what Battle.Net provides.

To the point. The engineers working on the upgrade will also be working integrally with the StarCraft II team and the Diablo III team. As they should be!

Diablo III will have “its own unique needs” for the new Battle.Net [VG247]

It may just consist of a single track, but we'll take the three minutes and forty-six seconds of Diablo III that we can get. The "Diablo III Overture" by Russell Brower & the Eminence Symphony Orchestra is yours for the downloading, free via iTunes as part of the Discovery Download series. The symphonic ditty will likely be familiar to anyone who's watched the Diablo III debut teaser, as portions of its braying pomp and circumstance were peppered throughout.

Yeah, it's iTunes and you'll be downloading an .M4P file, but factor "free" into your whining about that — and be thankful you're not downloading that old Blizzard downloader thing! Thanks to all who tipped us on the free music news.

Diablo III Overture [iTunes Store]

While waiting for my turn to click-click through an all too brief taste of StarCraft II, I asked Blizzard reps the inevitable "Since Diablo III isn't here, I assume will it be playable at BlizzCon?" After all, when the sequel to StarCraft was announced, it was publicly playable just four months later at BlizzCon 2007. Surely, we'll be getting our hands on the Barbarian and Witch Doctor in October... right?

We got one of those non-answers that was very telling. "We haven't announced anything about what will be playable at Blizzcon," a Blizzard rep told us. Inconclusive, yes, but delivered with one of those smiles that one frustratingly can't print.

It sure sounds like Blizzard is working to bring a playable copy of Diablo III to BlizzCon this year, but we realize that things can change at the last minute. However, if you're going to the 'Con in Anaheim this year, don't be surprised if you're knee deep in hellspawn and rainbows all weekend.

When Blizzard announced the first two classes in Diablo III, the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor, at least one fan of the series was taken aback by the class rehash. That would be me, for the purpose of this post. After enduring such a long wait for the third Diablo installment, why resuscitate the Barbarian, when there are plenty of perfectly good fantasy game archetypes still left to explore?

Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson says the reason is simple. The Barbarian in Diablo II could've been better. He was a bit more diplomatic in his dissing, saying that the brute force attack class had "room for improvement."

There's one class that definitely won't be coming back for another appearance in Diablo III. And Wilson says that it was because that class was just shy of perfectly designed.

Blizzard Unveiling Lich King cinematic, Details at Leipzig

Mike McWhertor and Michael Fahey are jetting their way to German as we speak, so they can cover the antics and news of Games Convention. It was last year at Games Convention that I had my first chance to play a bit of StarCraft II. Unfortunately, this year's Blizzard showcase will not include hands-on with Diablo III.

The good news is that Blizzard plans to unveil the opening cinematic movie for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at the big show. They also will be hosting a Q&A session following the airing on Thursday. Blizzard also plans to have more hands on time with StarCraft II and Lich King as well as other Q&A sessions with members of the StarCraft II and Diablo III teams.

Make sure to check back here starting Wednesday for our in-depth and live coverage of the biggest and best public gaming show in Europe (personally, i think the world).

Come on. Got to be at least some of you care enough about a new Diablo game to want to part with $300 for a statue. It's by Sideshow Collectibles, showing Diablo III's Barbarian in some kind of primal howl. Know that, yes, it really is $299, but know also that this is an unpainted prototype (so yeah, sorry, they're going to add colour to this as well) and that there are two versions, one sans helmet and a limited edition one with a helmet. Just like the game, there's no release date.

BlizzCon 08 Panels Announced, Expect New Diablo III Classes There

For the millions missing out on the now sold out BlizzCon 08, here's some salt for those fresh wounds. The official BlizzCon web site has updated with a list of the convention's developer panel plans, covering all things Diablo III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft.

While you might think developer panels are dry stuff, the descriptions indicate otherwise. One Diablo III panel, for example, hints strongly that we'll get a look at new classes beyond the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.