BlackKnight

The point is we wouldn't know they were going to tell us anything in 2 days were it not for this. The only real confirmation is a Blizzard exec letting it slip yesterday, and only then because he was drilled about this. So this was just a clue to something. If I hadn't told you that a new title was being announced in 2 days would that have piqued your interest more?

Any thoughts about all this? If you want to catch up on the discussion so far, head to; www.diabloii.net www.diablofans.com Needless to say these are the sites I watch because I desperately would want to see Diablo III announced. A bit of trivia to throw in is that DiabloFans.com was, until a couple of months back, found at Diablo3.com. Blizzard politely asked them to vacate the domain and the owner complied... coincidence? Some other coincidences are the recent series of (terrible, seriously gawd-awful) novels - The Sin War - exploring something that happened at the end of Diablo II, and the recent Diablo II no-cd patch and Ladder Season.

A section of this so-far unknown image has appeared in the CSS code each day. There look to be 6 parts, with four parts corresponding to the 4 days past revealed so far. Each file name has a word and a number as part of it. The 4 words so far are Cold, Icy, Tundra and Cavern, which all describe place names from Diablo II's Act V (Frozen Tundra, Icy Cellar, Drifter Cavern and Cold Wastes). The numbers are 4, 15, 16, and 23, which are 4 of the 6 Valenzetti numbers from Lost (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42). Huh? Make of all this what you like. Here is the picture; I reiterate- huh?

Day 4 Day 4 features an unknown symbol- possibly related to the 3 existing major universes Blizzard owns, orbiting a new universe / franchise in the middle.

Day 3 Day 3 features the emblem of the Protoss Akilae Tribe from Starcraft.

Day 2 Day 2 features this carving, which looks extremely similar to the 'Hel' Rune in Diablo.

Day 1 Day 1 contains a symbol very similar to one from Warcraft. This is the rune for 'Unholy Magic' used by Death Knights.

Blizzard Entertainment has a history of protracted teaser campaigns in the build up to a new product announcement. Anyone remember the elaborate unveiling of Starcraft: Ghost in 2002, or the Starcraft II reveal last year? Anyway it looks like they're upto their old tricks again. The following pictures have been posted as the splash page to Blizzard.com, Battle.net and all other Blizzard games sites and updated each day. Presumably there will be 5 of them, and they will lead up to a reveal of a new title at the WorldWide Invitational this Saturday the 28th. Remember that Starcraft II was announced at this event last year. This year, it seems as though the long awaited Diablo III will be announced, but so far nothing is certain except for there being a new game announcement. The images have new hidden runes in the ice each day, as well as Lost-like numbers and a cryptic image hidden in the CSS. Edit (28/06/08): The new title announced is, in fact, Diablo III. Teaser Trailer Gameplay Demo Part 1/2 Gameplay Demo Part 2/2 Official Site: Blizzard.com/Diablo3

Quartermann is full of sh!t and Kotaku has lost any credibility... I'll file this away like their 360 BD-ROM and NAND PSP 'rumours'.

Yeh, all new content is exclusive to Gold for a few days. But more importantly, it was intended to be an online stress test- I don't even know if you'll be able to play the beta on Silver once you download it.

Check the Scorcher Flamethrower's effects in the 2nd video.

I wasn't planning on it, but if you get it then I will too. The question is, does it let you play Private Player Matches? Or just random matches?

800MSP like all the others.

Lol you dissing me Inky? I'm seriously spending next year in Japan teaching English~

Wait till BK get a PS3 It won't be a fair comparison. VF5 looked a lot better when it came to the 360. No doubt Tekken 6 will look better on the PS3 when it gets released too. The console hardware is a lot better than the arcade systems the games run on.

What's your point? I must have missed it. If you're saying that any story can be reduced to plot points, you're right. But what you've just described there is not only shallow, it is a stock storyline. So I think, if anything, you're making my point here.

Who said 'eye' candy? Or mathematics? And if it isn't shallow, then explain why it isn't. But why do you care? If you want complex drama, you read a book- you don't watch a cartoon. I'm not going to pretend I'm a scholar when I go see The Dark Knight next month either, but I'm not letting that stop me from seeing it.

You can't say that about all writing or all films. The difference is the level of engagement. And don't get confused with what I'm saying- there is am emormous degree of difference between literature for young adults and high art. I'm just using terms you'd recognise. Anyone who reads will understand the shades of narrative complexity. I think it is funny that as soon as I suggest anime is for kids everyone jumps to the 'you're wrong' position. I'm not begrudging you for watching anime- but to see you all defend it so vehemently is quite amusing.

Chips in these machines are also produced by nVidia and AMD. But that is irrelevant- they are completely different chips. The two systems have wildly different capabilities, potential and actual, even if one chip in each may come from the same vendor. I agree the 360 hardware is being utilised better, but the hardware itself is far from identical to the PS3's.

Why are we only fooling ourselves? Just because it's drawn? If so, that's really hypocritical considering your previous argument. You've obviously never truly "felt" Cowboy Bebop. Where did I say it was shallow because it was drawn? It's shallow because it engages with everything only at a superficial level. Ideas are borrowed from all over and used without any proper understanding or insight- the result is a single-layered mishmash story where a few cultural, philosophic or scientific terminologies are used to dress up what is otherwise a plain and simple ongoing drama. A show about jammin' space jockey mercs with a Western motif isn't the best example to defend against this argument either- it in fact epitomises the point. Again, I don't criticise anyone at any age for watching the stuff. But don't confuse high-concept name dropping with high art. Whether the subject is ostensibly complex psychological introjection or divination in the middle ages, it is still only a superficial flavour for the underlying and simple drama. As such you don't need to be out of your teens to fully appreciate the stuff. Ergo, anime is still for kids. Neither an R18 rating nor a the lack of a comparable demographic for Western animation change this fact.

The PS3's number crunching capability smokes the 360's. Even as an Xbox owner I have to admit the hardware in the PS3 is far superior- the main problem is that it does not translate to a better gaming experience at all. The hardware is awesome but the platform fails and that isn't the machine's fault- it's Sony's for a long line of poor marketing and design choices.

The character textures in Tekken 6 are about even with VF5's (the 360 port, not the arcade version), but VF5's modeling is far and away better. T6's characters have more jaggies, more aliasing and, especially the characters with more bare skin in their costumes, look significantly less lifelike than those in VF5. Also, if those PS3 fanboys are talking up those water effects, tell them to have a look at the GoW2 Unreal Engine 3 effects on the 360. That is what water should be like, especially in a fighting game like Tekken 6 where 75% of the product is Tekken 5 and the rest is tweaks and new technology. More effort can and should have been spent on things like this.

Diablo II. New bowzon and new cold sorc. Join the action @ USWest

We don't have Tekken.net here at all. The machines around here are paired 32" 720p cabs with massive stereo speakers on each side. Which is still pretty badass. On the topic of graphics, it's good, but could have been a lot better. The geometry is really rough- just look at those stage collapses to see that point. Also water effects are very basic and character texturing isn't so fab either. It really looks like they wrapped higher-res skins around slightly higher poly T5 models and called it even. Animation is nice, for the most part but sometimes it just becomes obvious that the old rigging is still being used. And thanks for the Nancy vids too.

Anime may have more graphic subject matter but it is still for kids and teens. If you think trivialised philosophy, contrived storytelling, excessive violence or sexual depravity passes for mature literature you're wrong. An R18 rating simply denotes some content is not appropriate for children- it does not mean you need any comprehension greater than a child's to enjoy it. Not to say you can't enjoy anime at any age, but if you go off naming some pseudo-intellectual examples trying to pass it off as anything but frothy almost-melodramatic serial drama you're only fooling yourself.