diablo3 posts

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Games to play while waiting for Diablo III A crowd of ecstatic fans cheered when Blizzard announced Diablo III at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational and gave an early look at its gameplay. Then reality set in, and people were reminded that they wouldn't be fighting off the forces of hell again for a very long time. To help people suffer through the long "when it's done" schedule Blizzard sticks to, we've put together recommendations to help gamers get their action RPG fix until it comes time to confront the Lord of Terror again.
	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: 10-6 Here at Big Download we have been counting down our picks for our most anticipated games that we are most looking forward to seeing (maybe) at the event. After revealing our picked for 25-21 on Monday, 20-16 on Tuesday and 15-11 on Wednesday, we are now finally entering the top 10. Today we are revealing our picks for the 10-6 positions on our list.
	BigCast 003 -- The Pre-E3 Show ... Ladies This week we talk about everything from PC piracy solutions to puzzling (beta) demo releases. Also, listeners can enjoy multiple inside jokes that are later explained in the outtakes of the show. Akela, Kyle and Steven return to the BigCast this week ... well, until Steven has mysterious tech issues and is forced to opt out (which is later hilariously solved).
	Neverwinter Nights 1.69 patches arrive A trio of patches for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights have arrived, patching Neverwinter Nights, Hordes of the Underdark, and Shadows of Undrentide to version 1.69. Each patch adds new music tracks, tilesets, and more to its respective title.
	New GRID 1.2 PC patch released The folks at Codemasters have released a new PC patch for their recent racing sim game GRID and we have it ready to grab right here at Big Download. The 1.2 patch has a number of fixes and changes for the game which we have right here.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	Big Download's most anticipated PC games of E3 2008: 15-11 On Tuesday, in our last thrilling episode of Big Download's most anticipated PC games for E3 2008, we listed our picks for 20-16 on our list after revealing our picks for 25-21 on Monday. Which naturally means that today we will have our picks for the 15-11 games we have on our list that we are most interested to see at E3 next week in Los Angeles. Which games will they be? Will they actually be at the show? Will we stop making silly references to Saturday afternoon movie series of the 1930's? Stay tuned to find out the answers to these exciting questions and more.
	Big Ideas: Are video games art? The idea that video games could be classified as art is a fairly recent one, emerging right around the time that we began to include narrative as a game element. All too often, the subject is brought up by detractors of the form as a way to look down upon a medium to which they feel no attraction. The underlying conceit is ridiculous of course -- if video games aren't art, then they have no lasting cultural value, and may therefore be dismissed as mere juvenilia. Yet video games are, nevertheless, quite a large part of our culture, and the lingering perception that they are made only to be entertainment for adolescents does the entire industry a disservice.
	New Team Fortress 2 update released PC owners get another new update for Valve's popular multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 this week. This update, which as always is available when signing on via Valve's Steam client, is mostly to deal with a number of minor bug fixed in the game.
	Blizzard community manager discusses Diablo III respecs Diablo II could be a harsh mistress: bludgeoning your free time without a second thought, severely lowering your resistance levels in Hell difficulty, and adopting a "that's life, kid" attitude toward misspent skill points. Though equally harsh in many ways, modern action-RPGs and MMOs such as Titan Quest and Blizzard's own World of WarCraft allow players the option to respecify (or "respec") skill points they've decided are no longer applicable toward their desired character build -- for a fee, of course.

An anonymous source close to Vivendi Games has told videogames247 that "Blizzard will face immense pressure to produce a console version of Diablo III" due to the impending Activision-Blizzard merger.

"If [Activision CEO Bobby] Kotick says, 'We can sell 10 million units of a console version' - and he will, because they can - it's an obvious situation," the source said. "Money talks. You could be looking at nearly half a billion dollars in revenue."

Of course, not every developer wields Blizzard Entertainment's deserved control over their intellectual properties. "[Blizzard is] in a unique position," admitted VG247's anonymous source. "Very few people have any sway over them at all."

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter agreed, stating that Blizzard would probably retain its authoritative status after the merger. "If they [Blizzard] disagree, I think Activision will defer to their judgment. However, I do expect the companies to engage in friendly dialogue on matters such as these, because all have the same goals."

Though the entire PC gaming world seems to be in a state of exultation due to Blizzard's Diablo III announcement, some are disappointed that the anticipated sequel is sticking a bit too close to the series' tried-and-true mechanics.

"I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft," said Fallout 3 producer Ashley Chung. Chung does make an excellent point: while Diablo III's gameplay does look exciting, Blizzard's conservative strategy of refinement over innovation is also readily apparent during the 20-minute gameplay trailer released this past Saturday along with the game's formal announcement.

Even so, Chung goes on to state what many similarly disappointed gamers have admitted: the game may not stray too far from home, but it looks fantastic nonetheless. "I have no doubt, however, that they will be incredibly fun, addictive and polished games," said Chung. "Blizzard is the top of the class when it comes to game development - nobody does it better."

Paris is a long trip, so long that most of us won't be able to make the journey overseas to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, which kicks off tomorrow and ends on Sunday. Fear not -- WoW Insider's got you covered. The WoW-centric site will be providing live updates from the show, including coverage of the anticipated Blizzard announcement that has caused speculation throughout the week.

Whether the announcement ends up being Diablo III, solid info on Wrath of the Lich King, or something else entirely, tune in to WoW Insider for updates as they occur.

Hey, don't feel bad that you won't be there live to witness the excitement, the games, the cosplay -- we can't go, either.

A Battle.net spelunker no doubt looking for dirt regarding tomorrow's Blizzard announcement stumbled across quite a find: A Diablo III general discussion forum. Click the pic to be taken directly to the source, but don't be surprised if Blizzard /squelch's the link sooner rather than later.

PC Gamer officially put the kibosh on the possibility of a Diablo 3 announcement in their next issue. In a chat with Voodoo Extreme, an editor from the magazine said "We're officially squelching the Diablo rumor. We've got two big announcements coming in our August issue, but neither is from Blizzard."

Though disappointing, this news comes with its own fun, anticipation-filled guessing game: what could the two announcements be? Details on Doom 4? Word on when Duke Nukem will once again hail as king*?

Only time, and the August 08 issue of PC Gamer, will tell.
*Yeah, right.