<![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3 - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3 - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> so you want to wait until 2015 for this game to come out??? SURE!!!!!

freespeech

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @bloog: I think Diablo either needs to remain isometric or not be Diablo. I'm all for the 3rd person over the shoulder dungeon raid, just not in Diablo. If they want to change the camera and style, they can call it something else like LOLDungeonCat.

TXM DOT COM

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Mmm, agreed on Titan Quest comparison, it played more as Diablo than Dungeon Siege did.

Not so sure about hand - drawing those huge randomized scenarios the Diablo saga offered. Pretty difficult task.

Why not isometric with more detailed sprites on a higher resolution (I recall Diablo II capped at 800X600)?

Carylith

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Also, just to add... The same thing can be said of Starcraft 2 vs the original. The 3D version looks just as good, but smoother.

RealmRPGer

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> As seems to be mentioned, Diablo II used pre-rendered models and environments. And so, technically, an actual 3D Diablo would be more true to Diablo than hand-drawn. This also brings up the question of why bother converting that 3D back into 2D? Today's graphics can handle better looking characters than were used in DII's pre-renders.

RealmRPGer

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I think everyone is thinking too small. 4D... Now thats the way to go.

Zensation

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> My comment is likely to be ignored, but I'll try this anyway: Does anyone have an official source actually saying that KOF XII started the artwork with 3d renders? I was under an entirely different assumption as to how they went about it until now.

Satsuz

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> mark wilson, when you die -- and you will die, just like a hardcore level 98 barbarian will die -- and you come to the gates of heaven, st. peter or whoever it is is going to say "yeah you're the dude with that awesome idea about diablo 3" and they're going to let you in, no matter what tax-cheating offenses you may go on to commit, no matter what diablo 3 ends up looking like.

daring to post this takes courage! it will pay off, my son! you will arise victorious!

also:

man i want diablo 3 so hard.

also:

still waiting for some super-hi-res screens of KoFXII, and/or a location test where i can sit down and play the thing.

108

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> More 2d hand drawn games would be great, but there is really a lack of 2d expertise in the game industry. I worked in a big company (about 1500 employees) and we were about 15-20 2d artist in the whole studio mostly doing concept art, or pixel art for GBA and DS. To make hi-res 2d games, you would need much bigger teams than that, and people who can draw/animate well in 2d are not as easy to find as 3d animators these days.

However, for a game like Diablo, there is no need to redraw the sprites since it's a 3d pre-rendered style.

pixeltao

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> With the speed blizzard works, hand drawn Diablo 3 will be released by Winter of 2050 just after Starcraft: Ghosh :(

andrezx

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> "However, there still are quite a few of people who worked on Diablo 1 and 2 that are still at Blizzard, including possibly the most important creative person at Blizzard, Rob Pardo."

Pardo is a very talented man, but he had almost nothing to do with the creation of Diablo 2 - he was working on Starcraft, the expansion and the port to N64 at the time. His sole involvement was as a member of the executive-QA strike team:

[www.mobygames.com]

As for Diablo, Pardo wasn't even hired when the game was released.

The reality is that there is almost no one currently at Irvine with a significant design/coding/art/audio credit on the Diablo series, and there are dozens of folks (like 95% of the non-cinematics/QA credits on the above link) who aren't there. The Diablo series was a creation of Blizzard North (with important feedback, QA, cinematics and marketing help from Irvine), and that studio was closed.

Of course, that doesn't mean that if a sequel is being developed and is released, it won't be awesome.

Sybil

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I would have been happy if they kept expanding Diablo 2, 2D et al.

Dr Terror

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> D2's gfx system WAS entirely 2D. They created 3D models, and made 2D sprites out of it, then the artists fixed the pixels to make it look nice. Blizzard has nothing to learn from KoF12 because they did that approach 8 years ago. ;)

ssh83

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Just keep this thing isometric, thats all.

HayamaAkito

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I wouldnt mind a hand drawn Diablo 3 at all. In fact I hope it is hand drawn.

Ra is on House

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> This is pretty much how I feel about a lot of games. Hand drawn stuff kind of went the way of the dodo when 3D took reign, but now with more powerful machines hand drawn stuff has so much potential to look so good. King of Fighters 12 looks absolutely gorgeous. It would fit a Diablo 3 very well years down the road.

Quilt

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mommar: That's right. Titan quest was 3D, and I think it nailed the fast paced isometric feel of Diablo. I realy think it's the camera position and speed of play, not the art rendering that makes the feel work. That's where Dungeon runners failed, and Titan Quest succeeded, and it had nothing to do with 2D vs 3D.

As for hand drawn art, that would indeed look awesome, but animating such beautiful assets, at a remotely decent framerate, at least, would be a tremendous untertaking.

Jawajoey

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> OMG it makes no sense!111

Why do so many people have a hard time thinking about a 2D Diablo? It was pretty much 2D in the first place. Yes it has 3D rendering, but it played from one fixed perspective and played exactly identical to a 2D isometric game. It's like saying a game like Donkey Kong Country was 3D.

Lokku

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I absolutely loved Diablo 1 and 2 when they came out. But now.. I find that as time and tech progressed I grew bored of the point, click, kill mechanic. Blizzard may prove me wrong whenever Diablo 3 finally does come out but it would take some new and interesting changes for it to hold my interest for very long.

lestat730

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @tetracycloide: So you'd call this poor graphic design, low-detail, cartoon cariacature?


+ Watch video

Am I the only one who thinks Diablo with this level of graphics quality would be almost painfully awesome? People really think low framerate sprites would be better?

gaijira

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @labrats5:
Bejewelled
Puzzle Quest
Peggle

It's happening again, it's just called "casual gaming" this time. Also somewhat prevalent in indie gaming. I like the trend, it means people actually get to play games instead of using them as benchmarks for PCs 2 months old and newer.

In Asia I found this has been the standard for a long time. It seems the Japanese computer games I've tried were always aimed at PCs 5-10 years back. It's a little sad if you have a monster gaming PC, but those who do are such a specialty niche compared to the set of people who upgrade every 5-10 years or more often. It makes so much more sense...

fuchikoma

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I don't understand. Diablo and 2 were both done with sprite-based 3D renders, so how would a hand-drawn style approach the feel of the previous Diablo games?

unmarkedone

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I'm just going to quote what I already wrote today in the 3 great innovations tread:

"I know this is going to sound retarded, but 3d gaming is what is destroying the pc market. Before three-dee, the type of hardware used for other computing tasks, namely logic and 2d acceleration, was the same as what was needed for gaming. So even if you didn't buy your pc with gaming in mind, as long as it was a modern machine it could play most games. But 3d acceleration is a completely different beast. Most applications have absolutely no need for it, so you really have to specifically request it when buying a pc. Integrated graphics is more than enough to play DVD's and Flash programs, but even the most advance GMA processor has trouble running Half-life 2 (a nearly 4 year old game) at minimum resolution. A return to 2d would make the pc relevant again, but I don't think anyone is willing to suggest something so radical. This is even depspite the fact that from a traditional non-gaming view of aesthetics, 2D games from 10 years ago are still more beautiful than Crysis. Once 2D hit 16.7 million colors and nearly infinite sprite counts, 2D became only limited by how well you're artists could draw. 3D gamis are still restrained by poly counts and texture resolution."

My prophetic eyes see all.

labrats5

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> All I can say is that even 2D games look nice these days, with innovative/artistic elements implemented into them. I would be lying if I said I couldn't imagine Diablo III in 3D. It's all a question of how well you can transfer the feel and look of games that used to be 2D.

Eonix

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Um. Diablo was 3D. Sort of. They took 3D models and prerendered them in to 2D sprites. There's no actual hand-drawn stuff. So taking Diablo and making it 3D makes..... total sense, really. 'Cuz it always was 3D. ... sort of.

If you want to see how they COULD do Diablo 3 (but probably won't), go to Mythos.com. Mythos is..... basically a Diablo 2.5, in 3D. It's real fun, too.

But most likely, if they make a Diablo 3, it'll be third person. And that'd be fine, if you ask me.

Poojipoo

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Diablo never felt spritish to begin with, what with the sprites coming from 3D models. What good will it do to suddenly try and change that (Assuming D3 even comes out)?

muu

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> i would love to see a high res 2D RPG. Even more so if it was Baldurs Gate goodness. But Diablo will do :P

Lokku

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mommar: I agree 3d is ok for these types of games however they shouldn't allow you to change the camera angle.

clintonskneecap

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Nah... the Street Fighter IV-Style would fit more. Make it 3D, real 3D with all those neat effects and then use this SFIV-Shader-thingie and make it look awesome 2Dish. Yay!

Sta

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I's pretty sad that these days people assume that new games have to be 3D. Why not make Diablo 3 2D? In my mind 3D will probably never surpass 2D, atleast not for a few more years and making a 2D game is just as feasible today as it ever was.

Feigr

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> High resolution 2D fighters are nothing new.

Take a gander at Guilty Gear, or its spiritual succesor, BLAZBLUE, which runs at 1024x768 resolution with what are probably the largest hand-drawn sprites in a 2D fighter yet.

Suzaku

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @gaijira: forming a choesive idom with the visual style is not the same thing as placing a huge focus on visual details. the art in blizzard titles is never very detailed because the artistic style is always cartoon charicature. granted drawing cartoon charicatures the anyone takes seriously as a visual face of an entire product is something of a feat in and of itself.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @J. Kyle: You had to bring up that damn "bing" noise for gem drops. You know that noise turned us into Pavlov's dogs right? That sound was like a drug to me. I'd hear 'bing' and the frantic need to kill demons would fade and I'd be okay for another few hours, but then all I would want was to hear it again, thus continuing the lvl grind for the phat lootz!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-DIABLO-PSA-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Know your Diablo fiend. You will not be able to see his eyes because they are sunk into the back of his head, but his knuckles will be white from inner tension and his clothes will be crusted with Cheetos from constantly killing off snack food when he can't find Diablo to bludgeon to death.

lostalaska

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> First Blizzard have to actually decide if they'd do another Diablo. Personally I was never a huge fan of it, always seemed too... clunky to me.

Odin

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Prinnygeddon!: Yep, D-pad for quick items, use the L shoulder button like a shift key, it activates the second set of quick items and when you tap the stylus with L held it uses your second set ability (Fire Bolt for example)

As you can tell, I have been thinking about this.

Degreeless

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Degreeless: Click and Kill on the Ds? I'd love it!

Automageddon!

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> WIlson, Its not going to happen. Seriously has great of an idea it is, the sheer amount of art assets that would have to be made, would require a big art department. I think that blizzard will most maintain its Computer generated sprite look. Mind you it will still look better but we're not going to have KOF like models, that's just asking too much.

Kounji

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I may be too traditionalist, but if they change the prospective, then it's not Diablo. 3/4 and hand drawn would be just great.

Automageddon!

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> A hand drawn horror RPG would be awesome. Concept art is always cooler looking than the 3D model it becomes. There would need to be hand drawn spiders too...

Verum

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @tetracecloide: Hahaha really? I don't know an artist (and I do know a lot of artists) who doesn't practically worship the Blizzard art staff. Ask anybody who actually does concept illustration. You may not like the styles they choose, but they absolutely place a huge focus on visual details, like no one else in the business.

[www.amazon.com]

gaijira

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Im still waiting for "Lost Vikings 3"...

Shiryu

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @J. Kyle: I hunted down the vanishing demons just so I could hear the hollow plunk of their freshly removed heads bouncing on the floor.

Setzer IIDX

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> KOFXII hand-drawn makes sense, but Diablo 3 being hand drawn? makes no sense. The sprites were pre-rendered 3d models already, so using 3d models only makes sense.

pandafresh

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Y'know, as skeptical as I was at first the more I think about it the better an idea it sounds. I'll agree that a 3D Diablo doesn't fill me with joy, I fear the dread spectre of one of those pointless floaty 3D cameras that shows off the visuals in close-up but is entirely pointless in practice.

I think hand-drawn sprites would have a nice aesthetic to them and leaves open some intriguing possibilities. Diablo on the DS anyone?

Degreeless

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> given that guild wars is both visually stunning and features 3D models i think it is evident that the cartoony visuals of warcraft and world of warcraft are a result of poor graphic design and not simply a natural result of the medium. the difference is evident in the depth and detail present in the respective titles conceptual materials as well.
blizzard has never been a game developer that has placed a heavy focus on visual details beyond the utility of making each unit easily distinguished from the others and creating an idiom that distinguishes individual titles from each other an those of other developers. any tendancy of the beholder to see that in any of their materials, diablo II included, is simply nostalga and rose colored glasses.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mark Wilson: Ultimately, 3D rendered into sprites vs 3D really is not nearly as important as the art direction, which Blizzard is phenomenal at. I have no doubt that Diablo 3 will look amazing, even though it will be full 3D.

@SchoolBusDriver: Sure, Blizzard North is no more, and a lot of key people from there have moved on to other companies (whether it be Flagship, ArenaNET, etc.) However, there still are quite a few of people who worked on Diablo 1 and 2 that are still at Blizzard, including possibly the most important creative person at Blizzard, Rob Pardo. Also, they do really well with recruiting some of the best talent in the industry. Keep in mind that a lot of people who are working on Diablo 3 who, while they may not have worked on 1 and 2, loved the first two, and rest assured the game will be in good hands.

darthmole12

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Diablo has always been a 3D wannabe, I can't understand how you'd get the idea to have it drawn. These days we can make 3d graphics in real time that are as good and probably better than all the pre-rendering in Diablo I/II.

Anyone played the PSX version of Diablo? It was actually really good. Two player coop on same screen was way fun :D

Yin

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I'm not sure it would look so fantastic from the traditional isometric diablo camera angle...

meandering_drivel

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> There are honestly a lot of willing graphic artists who are willing to pursue a project like this, it just depends on whether or not Blizzard is willing to pay for it (I'm sure they can afford it).

kevinyung89

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @kingmanic: D2's charm wasn't it's graphics. It was it's twitch gaming crossed with slot machine loot mechanics, balanced difficulty and diversity and usefulness of items.

All this, plus that awesome sound every time a gemstone dropped. Bing! That sound was addictive. It's what kept me playing for hours on end. Bing!

...I'm a crazy person, aren't I?

J. Kyle

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mommar: Why are you getting so defensive? Anyways, what I was trying to get through to you is that nowadays standards require more than just isometric perspectives. Why? Because all games need to adjust to competition. And competition is there, in all kinds of camera perspectives - some RPGs even feature both isometric and 3rd person at the same time.

The conclusion I draw from this is that D3, if made, would hardly feature isometric and if, then only as optional camera.

By the way, 3D games with isometric views have been done successfully over the past ~4 years, so I don't see why Titan Quest is such a stand-out example. The game itself was mediocre anyway. Could have mentioned something more experimental that worked out nicely, such as NWN2.

Candlejack

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @BigWeather: Yeah, believe it or not game graphics technology has changed quite a bit in the last 9 years. Those same devs you spoke to would agree that 3D opens up lots of possibilities art-wise that were not previously possible. And performance is much less of an issue with modern graphics cards.

As far as gameplay goes, it's now way, way better to do things completely in 3D, for things like calculating projectile hits, environmental collision, and tons more.

gaijira

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @SchoolBusDriver: One can dream...

Zegridathes

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @baked ham:
The remake of Pools of Radiance was grid based and based on 3rd edition D&D rules. I loved both the original and the remake.

Eville1 says SKUse me a sec.

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> D2's charm wasn't it's graphics. It was it's twitch gaming crossed with slot machine loot mechanics, balanced difficulty and diversity and usefulness of items.

kingmanic

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> agreed this would be unbearably sweet

SAGA

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> There is no Diablo 3 and never will be really a Diablo 3, Blizzard North is no more and with the spirit of the Diablo team.

That's like Chris Nolan directing Eyes Wide Shut 2, what's Eyes Wide Shut without Kubrick?

SchoolBusDriver

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> They made a 3D Diablo with sprites. It's an MMO too, they called it Ragnarok Online.

fuchikoma

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Queasy: Its ok, they are using Benjamins to wipe after doo doo.

Their Art. dept is just phenomenal as evident by artbooks and the wtfpwnage CG's.

They should at least delve into it, it will be such a fantastical combination that will definitely show Blizzievision's artistic talent and /godlike gameplay polish

Fyren

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I'm all the way with 2D games, whatever game it would be..

Because seriously having every game in 3D is really disgusting nowadays. Excuse me I'm just a 3D hater, I just appreciate games like MGS when it comes to 3D.

AFAIK 2D games are more expensive to make, is this true?

k_dash

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Candlejack:
Everybody else is concerned with Diablo maintaining the look and feel of the old games, including isometric perspectives. I was just pointing out a game that looks good, is rendered in real-time and plays exactly like Diablo as a counter to the argument that real time 3D can't do Diablo justice. To be honest, I can't be bothered with whether you can stand isometric perspectives anymore or not. That's your problem, not mine.

Mommar

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Forget Diablo 3; Diablo 2 was a 2D game in a 3D world.

When I was at GDC shortly following (or maybe it was preceding, dang I can't remember) Diablo 2's release in 1999 I had the opportunity to pull aside a developer and ask them why they went 2D.

They responded "Why not? We can get the art style we want and much better performance with 2D, there's no need to go 3D."

That stuck with me, and I'd be perfectly happy with a 2D Diablo 3 made in the same way Diablo 2 was. 3D isn't needed at all. Gameplay is king.

BigWeather

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Candlejack: Hey look everyone, it's candleja

Machete_Bear

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @darthmole12: Thanks for the insight on the 3D rendering point, though, I am drawn to the idea of the prerendered animation workflow that includes a hand finish. Even with less lighting polish, etc, I think the rough edge would be an interesting art direction.

Mark Wilson

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Are any of the people who developed diablo 1 and 2 left? I swore a lot of them left to ArenaNet and Flagship.

Wolfers

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mommar: But...didn't you read my post? I said that isometric perspectives, and only isometric, aren't a problem to convert from 2D to 3D. It's just another engine zoomed out you know. It's been done a zillion times.

I don't really understand what the problem with any old fashioned RPG is - be it Baldur's Gate or Diablo (yes I know that is not much of an RPG). The problems start when you have to do it in a new perspective for public demand. And mine as well. I can't stand isometric camera perspectives outside of RTSs anymore.

Candlejack

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> As long as it isnt an MMORPG I will be happy.

yashichi8bit

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Queasy: I think Bliz can afford it.

smitty1123

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @gaijira: doh I meant Diablo III xD

gaijira

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Candlejack:
Yes, it is entirely isometric. What's your point?

Mommar

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Oooh i love guilty gear. And dont bring up Diablo 3 if there isn't any Diablo 3 news (such as HEY DIABLO 3 IS COMING OUT AND YOU GET A FREE COPY). That's the only Diablo 3 stuff i want to hear.

Diablo 3.

theespacepope

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Gladman: They could just have a pre-determined set of drawings for walls, floors, etc. Then they have the random dungeon generator take the sets and make dungeons. You know, kind of like random dungeon generators already do.

Donato

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> What about Fallout? I haven't heard much talk about whether Fallout's new 3d is acceptable, and that game certainly had a distinct "click-to-kill" isometric feel. I hadn't doubted Fallout 3 yet...but...maybe now I do a little.

sloner

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> "Without the limitations of polygons..."

lolwut?

The 'true isometric world' can easily be done in 3D, a la Warcraft III, Starcraft II, and basically every RTS for the last 6 years or so. Have you seen games like World in Conflict? Not exactly "artistically-limiting technical compromises of 3D modeling." The gifted concept artists at Blizzard are used to having their work as faithfully implemented as is technically possible, whatever method is used.

Don't you worry your pretty little head, if Diablo II is ever produced it'll look amazing...you know it's true...

gaijira

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> It has to be isometric. I don't care if it's done in 3D or with 2D techniques, so long as the perspective remains.

Zilor

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I just recently started playing D2 again, and can't help but find myself thinking about D3. Every time I'm skyping with my friend while we play D2, I always mention something about the third.

Blizzard WILL make it, and it WILL be amazing...

It's just a matter of when. :(

Figroti

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> And yes, as others have noted, what's really funny is that the entire premise of this article - that Diablo was 2D art - is wrong. It was always prerendered 3D.

SpiralJacobs

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Mommar: I could swear Titan Quest was still an isometric perspective. Those kind of games aren't hard to be done in 3D moving from 2D you know.

It gets shitty when you try and put them in a 3rd person RPG perspective. Which some games still excel at though. Probably not those that were previously 2D.

Candlejack

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I agree with this completely, now too bad it'll never happen and I'm left to dream about a game that will never exist.

ChadWardenn

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> A bit of a simplistic answer and sure to draw at least some bashing from purists....the solution in my opinion has already been offered.....Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. Many denounce this game but I love it. It is not without its limitations (what game is perfect?), but I love the art direction and game engine. I explain it to friends as a hybrid of Diablo and Gauntlet. Just a thought....

GameraTheGreat

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> No randomly generated dungeons then.
Well unless you pay some sweatshop workers to randomly draw a map whenever someone decides they want to play, but i don't reckon that will work.

Gladman

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> As much as I can see the charm of leaving a Diablo 3 entirely 2d, I'd love to see the same fixed isometric viewpoint in a 3d engine with a nice 'Diablo-look' shader over top. It would be nice to combine the Diablo gameplay with maybe a bit of a physics engine and some animation composition so we wouldn't be seeing the exact same death animations thousands and thousands of times over. I'd love to see a Diablo 3 where the environment itself was a considerable enemy, not just a series of stationary, invincible monsters pretending to be traps.

Zegridathes

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I think that the reason with KOF XII works is because there is a fixed resolution. A lot of the hand drawn detail would be lost by scaling to different resolutions (different PC configurations).

godhandiscen

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Guilty Gear did it first. Give Guilty Gear some credit. GUILTY GEAR!

Forkball

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> thing is... Diablo 1 *and* II were *entirely* made of prerendered 3d graphics. The only reason they did it was because they were trying to hit a low entry point so that everybody with their apple IIc could still play (caution: hyperbole). Why wouldn't they just do it again, or, better yet, do realtime rendering? The only real difference is the art direction.

deathbunny

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Queasy: each stage could still use many stock elements.

Mark Wilson

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Wait, what? Diablo has always been rendered from 3D models... This makes no sense.

You actually gain quite a bit by going full 3D as opposed to rendering out sprites from 3D models in an isometric game. There have been several isometric RPGs in 3D and they all looked just fine.

darthmole12

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I'm sure there are plenty of old Don Bluth or Disney pen/ink animators that would be available to work on a project like this, seeing as how every single animated movie is done with computers these days.

Image Dirk the Daring running around in an isometric dungeon crawler? Sweet.

Draco Basileus

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I don't care what it looks like, I just want it.

Gray665

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Everyones for the hand drawn sprites and stuff, but I agree with the others in here, it will take way too much time to finish off. I believe that Diablo 3 CAN be done in 3d...although it would lose the classic nostalgia that D2 invokes every time I play through it. If the game could be done in an isometric view, then I am 100% for it.

Zenian

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> How would hand drawing it take any longer than making the pixel based sprites of yesteryear? Besides, I don't think blizard is bound by cost and/or development costs in any way shape or form.

Spenze

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Kyle81:
2d Games and 3d games have hand-drawn tiles, you know..

Wyld

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I only played Diablo 2 and It's expansion. But for the most part, I remember it always being randomly generated.

From Mark Wilson's opinion. I can take what he said in two ways.
1. Literally draw everything but base it on newer technology like the way KOF is and make it look gorgeous and keep the aesthetics and Diablo feeling to it. It can be done... and it can be done well by Blizzard. I have faith in them.
2. Draw it out as in make the game so long and epic, people won't complain that its still in the 2.5 perspective. Updated graphics, but if its the same formula but extended to a longer more enjoyable playing experience, I can see it be a success.

Diablo 3, done correctly can be a masterpiece.
I'd rather get a Warcraft IV (I detest WoW now...) or an earlier release of Starcraft II, but Diablo 3 is still good.

Rika Aiuchi is SeXXXy

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Kyle81: testing testing

HarrisonGebius

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I think that they should forego on a traditional Diablo 3 for the time being and make a Diablo SRPG. Grid-based tactical RPG dungeon crawler in the Diablo universe with a practically infinite amount of armor & weapons and tons of ability to find, with a system that combines the Persona Fusion in Persona 3 w/ the Skill Binding of Jeanne D'arc to give the player the ability to combine everything: weapons, armor, skills, items, in order to create new and unique things. It could be awesome!

It'd be really cool if they could figure a way to combine the real-time style strategy of GrimGrimoire with the grid-based style of Jeanne D'arc and Final Fantasy Tactics, etc. But of course in that isometric view.

baked ham

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I love isometric games - SuperMario RPG, Diablo, etc - and if hand-drawing them is the way to bring them back, I'm all for it

Scorpi

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I think its sounds like the best idea I've ever heard. Diablo 3 in 3D would never feel quite right...

I think you need to email this article to several folks at Blizzard. Just to put the idea in their heads.

Bones_Jackson

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Superb idea, if the resources exist to pull it off.

Mister Adequate

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I love how the gaming community is rallying behind these wonderful sprite-based engines (theoretical or existent). I've preferred sprites to 3d for years now, and I always felt like I was crazy, or the only sane person in a crazy world. But now I'm not alone! I can only hope to see more things like Odin Sphere and KoF12.

ninjafetus

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Isn't Diablo done in 3D, just converted to sprites?

It's a cool idea, having amazing paintings as backgrounds and stuff.

But after playing Hellgate: London, it's obvious to me that 3rd person is the way to go. HG:L kind of failed in regard to immersiveness, but Blizzard could make a 3rd person Diablo that is immersive and hopefully sickening and terrifying. The point and click ARPG works REALLY well in third person and I think HG:L proved that (despite other faults).

Diablo was a pretty frightening game at the time, but I don't think that feeling could be recreated today from an isometric view.

bloog

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> The sprites in Diablo II were rendered from 3D models. I don't see any reason why real-time 3D models couldn't be used today. I'm sure the technology is there. I don't think the art direction would suffer from that choice.

I mean, don't get me wrong; I love 2D sprites, but I don't think that a real-time 3D Diablo III would in any way be a bad thing.

J. Kyle

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Diablo and Diablo 2 weren't hand-drawn, they were computer pre-rendered sprites.

slash000

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> @Kyle81: That's why Korean animation studios exist.

Erwin

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> It would be VERY tricky to do given all the variations on weapons and armor that they would need... Since we won't be getting another Titan Quest, maybe Diablo III should just act as its spiritual successor.

Philonious

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I just tried the demo for Titan Quest, and yes, it feels like Diablo. Exactly like Diablo, by way of Clash of the Titans. It can be done in 3D.

SpiralJacobs

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Methinks this is a great idea.

Nintenboy01

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I still think the original carmagedoom pedestrain have more details that all the others, 3D, encarnations. So I can agree with you. But anyway,.. do has mommar say, make it 3D, but isometric. That may work.

Tei

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> That would be amazing. I don't think it'll happen though, ever since we got 3d games it's been 3d this 3d that. The possibilities of 2d games with the kind of hardware we have at our fingertips now is staggering..

Ajh

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> "But a hand-drawn Diablo III feels like a Diablo limited only by an artist's pen."

That and the large time and cost required to hand-draw the entire Diablo world.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fantastic idea. It also sounds like a massive undertaking though.

Queasy

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> I agree. Sort of. With emerging tech, who knows? What about a 3/4 holo game? (Anyone else remember that?)

Eville1 says SKUse me a sec.

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Wait, there's going to be Diablo 3?

Machete_Bear

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Goddammit Wilson. Now I lust for a game that will never be. :)

Legion329

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> You know Titan Quest did an excellent job with the feel/look of a Diablo game but all done in real time 3D. What would be so hard about doing the same thing with Diablo 3?

Mommar

]]> <![CDATA[What King of Fighters XII Taught Me About Diablo 3]]> Drawing whole dungeons..... yea sure

Kyle81

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