Diablo 3 Screens and info thread

[TheMailMan78]

Well I'm looking forward to the new Diablo and I thought it might be fun to share what I've read so far AND post some screenshots as I find them. Whenever new info comes about Ill post it here and if anyone finds something new please feel free to add it in. Ill update the first post accordingly.

Game Info:

General Overview

■No plans for a console version yet, but the team has considered it.
■No decisions made on the financial model. Blizzard is leaning toward not charging a subscription for Battle.net, but some features will be monetized.
■Largely follows in the style of past Diablo games.
■Controls and camera kept simple, but depth of combat enhanced.
■The story takes place 20 years after the events of Diablo II.
■Greater emphasis has been placed on a character-driven story.
■Targeting a length similar to Diablo II, which ran four acts.
■Uses a new in-house 3D engine and the Havok physics engine for destructible environments.
■Has been in development for four or five years. Was rebooted after Blizzard North shut down in March 2005.
■Will ship simultaneously on Mac and PC.

Gameplay

■Attributes such as Strength and Intelligence are currently leveled automatically. Blizzard hopes this will place even more of an emphasis on equipment and talents. It also frees up the developers to plan for specific class builds.
■All classes now have significant DPS capability.
■A skill respec system is planned, but has not been detailed.
■Checkpoints have been added to dungeons.
■Players that die have the option of using a Vial of Resurrection or spawning at the last checkpoint, with full gear and items, and a sliver of health. No more fighting back to your corpse.
■Killing a large number of monsters in a row can earn players extra experience bonuses.
■The waypoint system will return, and will now feature an option to teleport to any nearby player.
■A world map will be used in conjunction with the waypoint system.
■Town portal system will "probably" be changed to speed up gameplay.
■Large focus on encouraging cooperative play.
■Level design will be a mix of randomized and static maps, as in Diablo II.
■Much more vertical terrain. Bridges, ladders, etc.
■Destructible environments have been added. Weak walls and hovering chandeliers can be used to kill enemies.
■Blizzard plans to offer higher difficulty levels.
■The permanent-death Hardcore mode from Diablo II is likely to return. "Don't see why we wouldn't do it."
■Booby traps return.
■Helper/bodyguard NPCs are back.
■Leveling up emits an explosion from the character, dealing damage to surrounding enemies.

Items
■A Skill Rune system has been added to the game.
■Skill Runes will drop randomly from monsters like any other loot.
■Each talent/spell has a single Skill Rune slot. Once socketed, the runes add various effects to the skills.
■The runes can be swapped in and out--they do not bind.
■Blizzard has created around 8 runes so far, with varying degrees of power--minor, major, etc.
■Confirmed Rune Types:
■Multistrike: Multiplies the effect of the spell. Example: Adds extra fireballs to Magic Missile, chain lightning to Electrocute, or multiple player copies with Mirror Image.
■Lethality: Adds critical hit chance to the spell. Example: Adds explosion effects to spells like Electrocute or Disintegrate.
■Power: Enhances the power of the spell. Example: Skull of Flame fireballs leave burning areas on the ground.
■Striking: Adds a damage effect. Can turn a spell like Teleport into a damage-dealing warp.
■Passive skils and the Skill Runes have replaced the Diablo II synergy system.
■12 item slots: weapon, shield, helm, medallion, chest, sash, two rings, boots, pants, shoulders, and gloves.
■Weapons will include offhands such as wands and crystal balls/orbs.
■Inventory space can be expanded via extra bags, along the lines of World of Warcraft.
■Items all take up one inventory slot--no more shuffling that giant spear around.
■Color-coded items, uniques, runes, gems, and other conventions return, in addition to identification scrolls.
■Loot is now generated per player. You only see the loot that you can pick up. Blizzard hopes this will help to foster a spirit of cooperation.
■Damage-per-second statistics on all weapons.
■Trading will be improved over the ad-hoc Diablo II experience, but nothing like an "auction house" system has been confirmed.
■Less focus on potions in order to emphasize skill use. Monsters can drop instant health regen orbs which heal anybody nearby in your party.

Questing
■There will be class-based quests in addition to main storyline quests.
■Quests reward players with chunks of experience a la WoW.
■A new "Adventure" system will power randomly generated scripted events and quests. An example provided was an area the player would come across, such as an old abandoned house, that may have a story behind it and enemies to dispatch.
■A new conversation system will see fully-voiced characters interacting with each other.
■Quests are denoted with yellow WoW-like symbols.
■A quest tracker will allow players to easily determine which quests they are on.

Interface
■The full-screen map has been replaced with a traditional minimap, which can be toggled on and off.
■Lore can be collected in the form of scrolls. A voiceover begins on pick-up, with pause and play buttons at the bottom of the screen to control the audio playback.
■The new hotbar acts like an abbreviated four-slot form of a World of Warcraft hotbar, with two additional slots for potions.
■New skills are added simply by right clicking on the hotbar and selecting from a list of your learned skills. No skillbook needed.
■Players will be able to easily assign a primary LMB attack, as well as quickswap between two RMB skills using the mouse wheel or tab key.
■Isometric view that can be zoomed in, but not zoomed far out.
■Hit point numbers and words like "block" now appear above monsters.
■Buffs are now displayed as an icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
■Gold is now automatically picked up if you run over it.

Multiplayer
■Players will be automatically partied when they join a multiplayer game.
■Player vs. player combat is reportedly planned, but no details have been released.
■A scroll that would teleport you to other players is also being considered for inclusion.
■Drop in/drop out cooperative play over Battle.net.
■There will be a single realm/region for North America.
■The game can support about eight players in multiplayer, but currently plays better with around five. The maximum has not yet been decided upon.
■Battle.net will receive new upgrades, some of which will be seen in StarCraft II.
■Blizzard is looking at Battle.net features that will increase player accountability in order to cut down on annoying jerks.
■Blizzard is looking at integrating web community features, such as a WoW Armory-like website, that would allow players to show off their characters outside of the game.

Classes
■Five total character classes.
■Players will be able to choose a male or female variant of each class.
■Confirmed classes:

Witch Doctor
■Hails from the Teganze, an area of the Torajan jungles.
■A self-sacrificing people that believe in an alternate reality called the Unformed Land, which the Witch Doctors are able to tap into for their powers.
■Similar to Necromancer in function, but not necessarily intended as a replacement.
■Confirmed abilities:
■Skull of Flame: Grenade-like AoE (Area of Effect) fire spell.
■Horrify: AoE fear spell, causes most creatures to run away.
■Locust Swarm: Summons a swarm of insects that literally devour clusters of enemies, leaving nothing but bones.
■Mongrel: Summons a demon dog from a skeleton. Casting locust swarm on a mongrel adds disease damage to its attacks. Intentionally destroying the mongrel damages nearby enemies.
■Mass Confusion: Temporarily turns a group of enemies against each other.
■Soul Harvest: AoE spell that kills an enemy and converts it into mana.
■Wall of Zombies: Firewall-like spell that summons a line of zombies which stand and swing at nearby enemies.

Barbarian
■The Mount Arreat area, home of the barbarians, was devastated in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. The barbarian people have subsequently fallen into decline.
■Some barbarians have been turned into inhuman beasts.
■Confirmed abilities:
■Cleave: Hits multiple enemies in one swing.
■Ground Stomp: A thundering AoE stun.
■Leap: Precision jump that destroys enemies on landing.
■Seismic Slam: The Barbarian slams the ground, creating a directed shockwave that can hit multiple enemies in a line.
■Whirlwind: A reckless spinning attack that takes out any enemy in the Barbarian's path.

Wizard
■An upstart magic user, not fit for the term sorceress.
■"A rebellious wizard, young and inexperienced, wandering the world, dabbling in powerful magics she does not understand."
■Full spell tree, including passive skills, available here: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1020
■Confirmed returning abilities:
■Charged Bolt: Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal 1-8 lightning damage each.
■Storm Armor: Surround yourself in electrical energy. Electric bolts are automatically fired at all attackers for 1 to 8 damage.
■Frost Nova: An explosion of ice pelts nearby enemies for 1-3 cold damage. Has an additional 25% chance of a critical hit. 12 second cooldown.
■Electrocute: Lightning arcs from the Wizard's fingertips towards enemies, electrocuting them for 4-5 damage.
■Ray of Frost: Project a beam of cold energy that deals 6 cold damage per second.
■Blizzard: Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing 6-10 cold damage per second for 3 seconds.
■Magic Missile: Fire 1 missile(s) of energy at your enemies causing 7-13 arcane damage to them.
■Disintegrate: Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing 10 arcane damage per second. Damage is modified to 80% each time the beam passes through a target.
■Wave of Force: Project a wave of force outwards, repelling enemies and projectiles and dealing 1-8 damage.

■Arcane Orb: An orb of pure energy explodes on contact dealing 12-16 arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area.
■Slow Time: Warp space and time, slowing nearby monsters and projectiles.
■Temporal Armor: Surrounds the wizard in a protective shell that stops all damage from an attack every 6 seconds. The shell dissipates after absorbing 12 attacks.
■Spectral Blade: Summons a spectral blade that strikes each enemy in front of the Wizard 3 times causing 1-5 physical damage with each hit.
■Stone Skin: Shield yourself with rock and stone, absorbing 30 damage. Lasts 8 seconds. 15 second cooldown.
■Mirror Image: Create an illusionary duplicate of yourself that lasts for 8 seconds.
■Meteor Storm: Meteorites pelt the targeted region dealing 10 to 20 damage per second.
■Acid Cloud: Drop a deluge of acid on the targeted area. Deals an initial 1-4 poison damage followed by 4-8 poison damage per second to enemies who remain in the area.
■Hydra: Creates a multi-headed beast that attacks your enemies with bolts of fire.
■Magic Weapon: Imbue your weapon with magical energy granting it increased damage.
■Other classes are still not fully decided upon by Blizzard, but an obvious addition would be some kind of Archer.

Monsters
Skeletons
■Will come in standard soldier form, as summoners, or as shield bearers.
■Shield bearers are slow but tough, and will absorb damage until their shield breaks, protecting casters behind them.
■Skeletons be summoned by necromancers anywhere, but will require less effort to summon in a graveyard than in the middle of a forest.
■Necromancers can summon a horde of skeletons or one single uber-skeleton for the same cost.
■Summoners will automatically replenish skeleton warriors for a necromancer, creating a self-sustaining army.
■Ghouls
■Standard ghost-like wraiths. Once killed, can turn into a Crawling Corpse, which holds down players until killed.

Berserker
■Aggressive monster with a mace that charges up its attacks, becoming vulnerable if it misses.
■Scavenger
■A two-legged monster that burrows underneath the ground, exploding upwards to attack the player. Similar in appearance to the Leapers of Diablo II.
Dune Thresher
■A burrowing monster similar in function to the Scavenger. Its long tail is visible above ground as it worms its way through the earth.
Khazra (goat-men)
■Similar to the goat-men in past games.
■Moon Clan Charger variant wields a large axe.
Dark Cultists
■Weak magicians, they summon demon spawn to fight against you.
The Dark Vessel variant transforms into powerful entities on a timer. The player must kill them before they morph or face a tough battle.
Grotesque
■A fat zombie. When killed, dozens of blue eels swim free of its stomach and swarm the player.
Beast
■A large wooly beast with horns. Seems to have a charge and slam ability.
Thousand Pounder
■A mini-boss demon shown in the Forgotten Tombs dungeon. It wields two giant maces.
Gnarled Walkers
■Entities from another dimension that disguise themselves as massive trees, picking off men and animals when they come near.
■Employ some kind of poison attack.
Siegebreaker Assault Beast
■A very large mini-boss resembling a dog creature with a human torso attached to it. Shown at the end of the recent gameplay demonstration.
■Picked up a player and bit his head off in a scripted animation, finishing it off in one attack.
The Skeleton King
■A large boss in the Tristram church catacombs. The return of King Leoric from the original Diablo.
■Challenges players to reach his throne, at which point he attacks along with several minions.

Story
■Player character now interacts with characters in dialogue scenes.
■Old characters like Deckard Cain return.
■Plot:
■It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.
(Source: Blizzard.com)


■"In the previous two games, Diablo and his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal, were the three Prime Evils of a world called Sanctuary. Where we start off in Diablo III, it's twenty years later and the brothers are gone, they've been vanquished. Essentially everyone was kind of geared for Hell to actually invade. At the end of Lord of Destruction, the Worldstone was destroyed, it left a giant crater and everyone was expecting the hordes to come pouring out of it and nothing happened. So, Deckard Cain is one of our main characters from the first two games, he's spent the last two decades trying to find out where the last two Evils are, what they're doing and why the invasion didn't happen. A lot of the rest of the story focuses on Tyrael, the Angel of Justice, and what's happened to him since that event as he was actually the angel who destroyed the world." (Source: Kotaku)


■World Locations:
■New Tristram
■Town formed by merchants looking to make a profit off of the legends of riches found in the cathedral.
■Fell into decrepitude after the cathedral was looted.
■Now comprised of "depressing shacks" and the old inn.
■Cain says that there is still value in the cathedral in the form of ancient tomes.
.
■Caldeum
■Located in Kehijstan.
■Rivals Diablo II's Kurast in size.
■Began to decay after Kurast's nobles fled their city and took up residence in Caldeum and brought with them a sense of entitlement.
■When the unifying Emperor of Kehjistan became ill and died, the Zakarum returned and the city fell into chaos.
■Confirmed Outdoor Zones: Leoric Highlands, Tristram Woods
■Confirmed Dungeons: Forgotten Tombs, Tristram Church Catacombs

Trailers, Gameplay and source.

Screenshots:

Trailer and Source

 

[TheMailMan78]

Concept Art.

Tid Bits.

Diablo after Starcraft 2
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.


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

Orginal Art Director on Style.
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.


Left, a Diablo III screenshot. Right, the image as altered by a fan.
"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 Irvine. That's what it looks like to me. Their interpretation of it."

Many fans have taken exception to the game's shift in art style, running petitions in protest of light beams and rainbows. The debate continued for months, with Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson going so far as to pointedly respond to the complaints while refusing to make changes.

Though Roper understands the artistic choices behind Diablo III's look, he doesn't prefer it as a fan of the series.

"I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn't necessarily get," he added.

"I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design, but not the feeling of the world. I can't say that I dislike it. I didn't look at it and go, 'Oh my god that's horrible.' But I looked at it and went, it's not really... to me as a player it just didn't really ring with Diablo."


The Fallen.
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."

 

[Cold Storm]

oooooo, I can't wait to play this game! I can't wait!! Feel like a school girl just getting her first date from the hotty in the first row of her English class...

 

[CrackerJack]

TheMailMan78- Gamer Junkie

Nice Work Man!!! Can't wait for this game!

 

[LittleLizard]

Ohhh, diablo 2. So many memories. I CANT WAIT for the next one.

 

[DonInKansas]

Since all of these screens are from the same site, couldn't you have just provided a link?

I AM excited for Diablo 3, though.

 

[entropy13]

I myself am also quite excited for Diablo 3 (and Starcraft 2)!

Haven't really caught on with the WoW fever (but my girlfriend did).

 

[Flyordie]

Im gonna get it just cause it will use 100% of ATI's GPUs. jpn- I played Diablo II and liked it... just never finished it.
Last year during my stint in college... a friend of mine was a Diablo Junkie and shared some info with me and a few other guys... Diablo 3 will have a fully functional DX10.1 code base... meaning it will use DX10.1 features like the Tessellation unit n such to optimize the game as much as possible... it means that even an HD4350 should be able to play Diablo3 pretty easily and AA is pretty much not gonna affect the FPS.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Since all of these screens are from the same site, couldn't you have just provided a link?

I AM excited for Diablo 3, though.

Yes. Yes I could have. However that would require us to root all over the place to find all the info. Here I handed it to you on a plater. You're welcome.....jerk.

Anyway if you find something more please....PLEASE post it. Or let me know where to look and Ill update. Anyway that first post took me over an hour! Read up. There is a ton of new stuff.

Im gonna get it just cause it will use 100% of ATI's GPUs. jpn- I played Diablo II and liked it... just never finished it.
Last year during my stint in college... a friend of mine was a Diablo Junkie and shared some info with me and a few other guys... Diablo 3 will have a fully functional DX10.1 code base... meaning it will use DX10.1 features like the Tessellation unit n such to optimize the game as much as possible... it means that even an HD4350 should be able to play Diablo3 pretty easily and AA is pretty much not gonna affect the FPS.

Source. Or your friend was full of shit.

 

[Flyordie]

The stuff was posted at www.subxzero.net but idk if its still up... letz me check...

http://subxero.phatcode.net/ <-- Try that... Doesn't work for me... just displays a red dot.

 

[TheMailMan78]

The stuff was posted at www.subxzero.net but idk if its still up... letz me check...

http://subxero.phatcode.net/ <-- Try that... Doesn't work for me... just displays a red dot.

I don't see anything. But thats besides the point. Blizzard would not make a game that would be 10.1 from the ground up. That would eliminate a TON of players right off the bat. Plus looking at the current engine there is no need to go past DX9. Sorry but your room mate was ether lying, misinformed, or had wishful thinking.

 

[CrackerJack]

I don't see anything. But thats besides the point. Blizzard would not make a game that would be 10.1 from the ground up. That would eliminate a TON of players right off the bat. Plus looking at the current engine there is no need to go past DX9. Sorry but your room mate was ether lying, misinformed, or had wishful thinking.

total agree, the average gamer wouldn't be able to play it. i could see this game having a dx9 and dx10 version. but that could be wishful thinking too

 

[Flyordie]

I don't see anything. But thats besides the point. Blizzard would not make a game that would be 10.1 from the ground up. That would eliminate a TON of players right off the bat. Plus looking at the current engine there is no need to go past DX9. Sorry but your room mate was ether lying, misinformed, or had wishful thinking.

As stated in the DX10.1 white papers... it has DX9 fallback. Thats what many people fail to remember. If you code it all in DX10.1 and do it well... games run great. BUT- many of the game programmers suck with DX10.1 and decide to code in a DX9 fallback themselves. That clutters the game up and makes it run a wee bit slower.

 

[Easy Rhino]

im on the fence about this one. i liked being able to choose which attributes i could increase. i also liked that when you died you had to go get your shit back. it made dieing all the more important to avoid. now it seems that people will just charge into a level and swing away at enemies they have no business fighting. this is gonna have to be one of those games that i only play with people i know.

 

[TheMailMan78]

As stated in the DX10.1 white papers... it has DX9 fallback. Thats what many people fail to remember. If you code it all in DX10.1 and do it well... games run great. BUT- many of the game programmers suck with DX10.1 and decide to code in a DX9 fallback themselves. That clutters the game up and makes it run a wee bit slower.

Um no. A game is made with DX9 or DX10. Not both. All games today are made with DX9 and have DX10 effects or "hooks". A game thats fully DX10 has yet to be produced. However there are some in the making.

im on the fence about this one. i liked being able to choose which attributes i could increase. i also liked that when you died you had to go get your shit back. it made dieing all the more important to avoid. now it seems that people will just charge into a level and swing away at enemies they have no business fighting. this is gonna have to be one of those games that i only play with people i know.

I dont like the whole paying battle.net crap they are talking about. If this goes the way of WoW count me out.

 

[AsRock]

Yet again with another long awaited game Mailman .. Thanks.......


I hope they do keep it on Battle.net and free.. I'll still get it for SP but not paying to play online thats just sad.

Although from what vids and screens i have seen it's not as open as D2 is. More linear looking and pretty sure it is and hoping i'm real wrong about that.

 

[Marineborn]

i got a feeling there gonna ruin it, seeing that the orignal diablo team is long gone, i can see this being a epic fail, thell try to franchise on there wow feel, and oldschool diablo players will getr pist

 

[BumbleBee]

it probably won't sell as many copies as Diablo I or II but that doesn't mean it won't be a best seller. thing I don't get is why people are complaining about the graphics when Diablo II was isometric!

 

[CrackerJack]

i got a feeling there gonna ruin it, seeing that the orignal diablo team is long gone, i can see this being a epic fail, thell try to franchise on there wow feel, and oldschool diablo players will getr pist

I can't see it beening a epic fail, all they need is: Good story, amazing graphics (which that already looks like a plus) and better/ or more character creations options. D2 only had 5 options, but it was still fun. Now Titan Quest took it over the top, you had i believe had about 15 or more different options on what you wanting to be in the game. Which makes it more fun, it's boring when 9/10 times everyone is the same damn thing.

Now if they do a good story and better characters. I'm IN!!!

But i'm with Mail, if they do the WoW crap, i'm out too. Diablo was mostly made for LAN/Online play. Mostly LAN at the time. It was the top LAN game in it's time. Wouldn't make any sense why they would now start charging or what not.

 

[TheMailMan78]

I can't see it beening a epic fail, all they need is: Good story, amazing graphics (which that already looks like a plus) and better/ or more character creations options. D2 only had 5 options, but it was still fun. Now Titan Quest took it over the top, you had i believe had about 15 or more different options on what you wanting to be in the game. Which makes it more fun, it's boring when 9/10 times everyone is the same damn thing.

Now if they do a good story and better characters. I'm IN!!!

But i'm with Mail, if they do the WoW crap, i'm out too. Diablo was mostly made for LAN/Online play. Mostly LAN at the time. It was the top LAN game in it's time. Wouldn't make any sense why they would now start charging or what not.

Titans Quest was a phenomenal game. That was truely a classic. It sucks we will never see another one. The studio is gone.

 

[Jaffakeik]

Me waitin D3 aswell,but firstly i wait for D2 patch 1.13

 

[1Kurgan1]

Cant wait for this game, need a good game to play coop with the GF and this fits the bill exactly as we both have a ton of Diablo play (granted me D1 and her D2).

 

[crazy pyro]

Do like. I'll probably be getting this in september (if it's out by then).

 

[Mussels]

Um no. A game is made with DX9 or DX10. Not both. All games today are made with DX9 and have DX10 effects or "hooks". A game thats fully DX10 has yet to be produced. However there are some in the making.

I dont like the whole paying battle.net crap they are talking about. If this goes the way of WoW count me out.

i'll state a few things here, so that people dont get confused

DX9 is DX9. nuff said.
DX10 does not have fallback to DX9. Requires a different .exe and different programming.
DX10.1 games will have DX10.0 fallback. think HAWX.

DX11 games will have fallback ALL THE WAY TO DX9. this is what was meant (and often misread) when it was mentioned that "current hardware (meaning DX10 cards) will run DX11 titles" - its the fallback that makes it possible, nothing to do with emulation and so on.


as to the battlenet, i'm thinking it will be pay to host a guild/run a clan etc, while free for the average user for most purposes.

 

[Jaffakeik]

Do like. I'll probably be getting this in september (if it's out by then).

Starcraft2 wil be out this year but D3 definetly next year/.