Diablo III - World of Warcraft 1.5?
Update 20th Aug 09 - They've fixed the inventory (34 seconds into vid). I'm 100% sure it was because they saw my Neverwinter Nights inventory pictures below. Lets hope there's an auto-arrange button like there is in Silent Storm. Now if only they'd listen to me more often.
With the recent gameplay video and screenshots released of Diablo III, a lot of true gamers are pretty pissed with the art direction/graphics. Blizzard have taken World of Warcraft's textures and essentially added 1.5x more detail.
Before any cuntmonkeys start thinking I'm some fanboy, I'll say right now that I haven't completed Diablo 1 or 2.
I frequent forums that are filled with CoD4 playing assholes, and as a gamer with taste, I often argue that Diablo 3 is essentially World of Warcraft plus higher resolution textures with slightly more detail. I also mention the unrealistic coloured lighting with greens appearing from nowhere. Note the key points mentioned - texture detail and lighting colour.
Invariably, this is when I get some little shit telling me that I apparently want a pitch black game and that I'm emo. Remember the key points? Not one mention of brightness. Checking their profile, they're always 16 or under. I wish they'd fuck off and go cream their pants over their shitty little wannabe-sims like Forza and FIFA 08.
At some point they'll throw this screenshot at you:
That screenshot is the last resort of someone who's seriously trying to defend an indefensible point. Unfortunately they fail, because you can't argue against fact - the fact that Diablo III looks like World of Warcraft 1.5.
Let me clear up the point about the textures. Diablo III's indoor areas look extremely flat. It's as if they got a painter to paint the stone textures, instead of just using real stone in the first place. This means there's no grainy, or realistic quality to the stonework. If you touched the surfaces with your hand they'd be totally smooth. Now compare that with these screenshots that actually have detail:
Your hands would get torn to shreds if you rubbed it down that stonework. After seeing those screens, this Diablo III screenshot looks fucking embarrassing:
I've made a few screenshots to emphasise the point:
Now take a quick look at this screenshot from IGN:
Good god. I practically just raped you. That table/shelf thingy was from World of Warcraft:
It's about time I mentioned the new inventory. It's shit. Take a look at Neverwinter Nights 1's inventory vs NWN2's.
If you think NWN2's inventory looks better, then you're an idiot. It's no surprise that NWN2 was shit. NWN1 got all the little things right, and the little things do matter (in fact, they're more important than the story. More on that in a future post). Diablo III's already fucked up a few of the little things. Not a good sign.
Potions - dumbed down (on the Oblivion quick-jump scale) so dumbasses can play. There's nothing more to it. (EDIT - I've just been informed that dev's prefer to call this "accessible". Sorry about that dev's. All is forgiven... NOT.)
To wrap this shebang up, take a gander at this video: (I just got shebang and gander - two words you've never said out loud - into the same sentence. I am God.)
If you still think Diablo III looks like part of the same franchise, then you're fucking deluded. This game should not be called Diablo.
Sign this petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/d3art/petition.html
