This wonderfully made book is a must-have for Diablo fans, as this tries to emulate/recapture the look and feel of that tome Deckard Cain carries in-game. Complete with rich lore and history of the entire Diablo trilogy, it gives players an inside look of the world of Sanctuary.
Here's some shots of the book itself:
Front w/ cover label
Back w/ cover label
Front w/o cover label
Back w/o cover label
The book cover itself looks and feels great. It's got a nice matte finish with a slight embossment on the details of the book which feels great. The book itself sports amazing artwork (as expected of Blizzard) to accompany the book's rich lore of the world of Sanctuary. It even has scribbles and notes from Deckard Cain, putting down important notes about certain events, people, places. It tries its best to closely resemble that of the tome that Decark Cain was carrying, as presented in the game. Even the page edges are small "tears" to make it look like an "ancient" book. It's those little attention to detail that makes this book more amazing to behold in person. :D
Just looking at the book coverpage, it reminds me of
those old manuscripts in museums.
It even contains a letter addressed to Deckard Cain's nephew; Leah.
The letter is abit bittersweet and made me a little teary-eyed.
(if you know what will happen to Cain in Diablo III)
The book also details how the world of Sanctuary
was created, with accompanying artwork.
The Archangel of Justice; Tyrael, looking majestic, as his illustration
accompanies his description in this page.
The book also includes description of the many
places in Sanctuary where our heroes hail from;
just like this entry about Ensteig... home to the Demon Hunters.
Aside from the said lore and illustrations, the book also has a special surprise at the back:
It's the map of Sanctuary itself!! To be honest, as a fan of the series, this is the first time I've ever seen the world of Sanctuary detailed as a map, and its simply glorious to behold. Seeing where Lut Gholein is located, or even Tristram is just amazing for a Diablo-fan like myself!! :D
The book is priced locally at Php 1,395 (roughly $31) and is available in Fully Booked. So if you're a fan of the series, this book is definitely an excellent addition to your book collection, as it fully compliments the game and gives fans additional information and lore that fully fleshes out the world of Sanctuary. :) Hopefully I get my hands on it's supplemental book as well; The Book of Tyrael. :D
Just this morning, a new trailer for the upcoming expansion for Diablo III was leaked via YouTube! The supposed trailer was to be released for BlizzCon, found its way online. The said trailer shows tons of amazing new features you can expect from the expansion pack and more!! Just when I thought I saw everything the expansion has to offer, this trailer showed me a whole lot of content and features for the upcoming expansion.
Here's the video:
What new feature of the expansion pack are you most excited about? Tell us what you think! Write on the comments below!
The folks behind Diablo III and the upcoming Diablo III: Reaper of Souls released a couple of morsels, just enough to whet our collective appetites for the upcoming expansion.
Check 'em out below:
Reaper of Souls First Look: Westmarch Level Design
"There was a time when Westmarch was a lively, vibrant city. Now, an unnatural chill hangs over the sprawling mass of Gothic architecture, and the unmistakable stench of decay chokes its few remaining survivors.
Take a trip with us through Reaper of Souls's first zone and peer behind the scenes at our design team's process in putting together the gloom and eeriness of a city under Death's siege."
"What first comes to mind when one thinks of Westmarch, the first zone players will encounter in Diablo III's upcoming expansion, Reaper of Souls?
From the home base of an eponymous order of knights to an architectural wonder built of monuments to King Rakkis's conquests, it is a city steeped in tales both heroic and bloody."
Popular World of Warcraft feature, Transmogrifcation, comes into the world of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls through a new ally, Mystic Myriam Jahzia. She'll not only offer advice throughout your hellish adventuring but will also offer Enchanting and Transmogrification.
Transmogrification will allow you to change and customize the appearance of your gear to look like other items that you've found. According to Blizzard, all items with a visual appearance are planned to be available for Transmogrification, including Legendary and Set items.
Some of the best Pinoy comic book creators have banded together and generously donated some of their much coveted original artworks for a charity auction event happening at the 2013 KOMIKON this coming November 16, 2013 Saturday at the Bayanihan Center in Pasig City. Proceeds of the sale will go to fellow Pinoy comic book creator Virgil Espinosa (hospitalized for kidney failure which requires expensive dialysis treatment) and the earthquake victims of Bohol.
If you cannot participate in the auction, the organizers will also be accepting any kind of donation for the earthquake victims such as canned goods, used clothes, bottled water, and the likes.
This charity auction is brought to you by Lui Antonio, KOMIKON, Inc., and the KOMIKERO Artist Group. For more information you may get in touch with Johnny Danganan via mobile: (0927) 531-1680 or email: johnny_danganan@yahoo.com.
Was farming earlier and faced off with Odeg the Keywarden somewhere in the Fields of Misery in Act One. After defeating him, lo and behold, he dropped The Key of Destruction!
I was so happy until I realized that I already had one. Bummer!
The Key of Destruction is one of the three keys required to create the Portal Device, which is required to complete the Infernal Machine event. There's a bunch of other stuff to accomplish but, to make a long story short, you get a Hellfire Ring if you succeed in bringing your jeweler the necessary items from these quests.
Your jeweler can craft one of four varieties of the ring where one of the affixes is guaranteed to spawn with +170-200 to a single attribute, either Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence or Vitality. The full ring stats are as follows:
+170-200 to one Attribute
Increase Bonus experience by 35%
Chance to launch an explosive ball of Hellfire when you attack
4 random properties
170-200 Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity or 100 Vitality (you choose which one)
The ring is account bound and therefore can not be sold or traded however it can be Salvaged
You can only wear one Hellfire Ring (your followers can wear one also)
There is no level requirement on the ring so any of your characters can wear it
Seems I still have some way to go before I get one of those.
Now that's something you don't see everyday (for me at least): a legendary item with two (2) sockets!
The item was found by my Barbarian earlier during a farming escapade (I'm trying to earn enough money to combine my lesser sparkling rocks into higher level gems) but I'm pretty sure my Demon Hunter character will be very happy to see this baby. Very happy indeed!
Tired of the endless quest for the perfect Legendary Item? Why not make your own?
Over the next few months, the folks behind Diablo III take you through the all the different design stages behind bringing a single Legendary item to life, from concept to creation to iteration, all the way through animation and implementation. The team will chat with each developer involved and share progress updates along the way, giving you a unique behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a Legendary item that looks epic, feels epic, and fit within the larger network of hero skills, monster tuning, and overall game balance.
They'll be involving the Diablo III community in various parts of the design process.
People will have the opportunity to not only weigh in, but actually help guide development on a Legendary item that will be implemented and playable through global community votes, hosting podcasts, soliciting ideas, and even running a contest or two to ensure that this is truly a worldwide, player-driven initiative.
Read the entire new story over at the official Diablo III blog here.
Blizzard Entertainment recently announced that Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is in development for the PlayStation 4.
No release date has been announced.The guys from Blizzard has not yet given word if Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is also in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will be playable to the public on the PS4 at BlizzCon 2013, which kicks off next month in Anaheim, California. Those in attendance at the event will get a chance to try out single-player and same-screen co-op demos, set on the streets of Westmarch as one of the game's original five classes.
Click here for the entire article over at Game Spot!
Blizzard just recently released a survey to owners of Diablo III, which revealed some interesting information about the upcoming expansion pack.
According to this news article, the upcoming expansion pack of Diablo III will be coming in 2 flavors, just like the original version:
Standard Edition - includes the Reaper of Souls expansion only. To be priced at $29.99 (around Php1,400)
Collector's Edition - includes the Reaper of Souls expansion, exclusive in-game content and other bonus items. To be priced at $49.99 (around Php2,200)
Interestingly the survey also asked participants of the survey to rate the features of the expansion pack in order of importance, as shown in the following screenshot:
Since most of us can't participate in the said survey I've made a little poll of my own, and ask everyone what you think is the most important feature of the upcoming expansion pack.
Console gamers rejoice!! In an interview with console senior level designer Matthew Berger, Blizzard confirmed that they are indeed planning on porting the anticipated Diablo III expansion pack: Reaper of Souls, to the home consoles. Click this link to the said news report.
Here's an excerpt of the interview:
"So, is it going to come to console? Yes. Obviously we wanna bring this expansion to console, we don't exactly know how we're going to do it yet (we haven't announced that), and we're going to treat the expansion in the same way we treated Diablo III when we moved it onto console, which means that we have to make sure that it is adapted to the console eco system in a way that is going to play the best way possible."
I'm definitely relieved to hear this news, as I was worried they would skip out porting Diablo III onto the home consoles, considering I already invested alot of time playing the game. Speaking of which, Blizzard also confirmed that people will be able to carry their characters over if they plan on upgrading their home console (PS3 to PS4 / Xbox 360 to Xbox One) which is a neat feature.
So to those of you worried if you'll be left out of the expansion if you play on the console, fret not as Blizzard has got you covered. :D
Just this morning, I'm greeted with the usual update message on my PS3 that tells me that Diablo III has a new update available for download. I readily downloaded the said update and curious as to what it does I headed to the usual forums. Apparently, the latest update addresses some bugs on the console version of Diablo III, where some users apparently lose some of their items in-game, among others.
For a complete list of changes, please refer below:
Diablo III Console Patch 1.0.2
Crash Fixes
Fixed a crash that could occur when quitting the game during a cutscene.
Fixed a crash that could occur when interacting with the stash while another player attempts to join your game.
Fixed a crash that could occur after connection failures caused by NAT/Firewall settings.
Fixed multiple crashes that could occur as a result of memory corruption.
Fixed crash when casting Hex with the Painful Transformation rune on a Fetish Shaman in Acts III and IV.
Removed unnecessary "Clear Skill" option that could appear on the Passive Skill screen and would crash the game when selected.
Gameplay Fixes
Enabling Elective Mode no longer causes "New Slot" notification stars to appear for the original slot as opposed to the slot the skill is assigned to.
Hardcore characters in the process of taking fatal damage while exiting the Scorched Chapel will no longer be permanently killed.
Followers can no longer permanently lose all items after migrating from one game host to another. The following four item sets will no longer repeatedly and permanently add core stat bonuses each time the player logs out of the game: Blackthorne's Armor, Endless Path, Zunimassa's Whispers, and Guardian's Contingency. (This fix will also retroactively correct inflated core stat bonuses on heroes affected by this bug prior to our hotfix going live.)
Equipping a quiver with a two-handed bow will no longer cause Quick Compare to incorrectly reflect a loss in damage.
Square gems should now only drop in Hell difficulty, which is also where the required items to combine them drop.
The Paragon experience bar for Player 2 and Player 4 now displays correctly instead of being visually clipped at the ends.
Fixed a bug that caused a player's experience bar to not display in multiplayer games if a another character with a Paragon levels had entered the game first. Fixed a bug that caused the inventory to not display unidentified Legendary items.
Fixed a bug that caused the inventory to display equipped items twice if you exited the gem socketing sub-screen with the Select/Back button.
Fixed a bug that caused the controller to become stuck vibrating indefinitely.
Made changes to address corruptions of saved game data.
For more info, you can visit this link that will lead you to the official Blizzard forums for the game. Please note guys, that this patch is only for the PS3. Blizzard says that an update for the Xbox 360 should be coming soon.
After reading up this post, I was pretty much bummed out. Because after hearing the news that Blizzard will finally be removing the Real Money Auction House from Diablo III on PC, I was hoping that they would finally include an offline version of the game like in the console version. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. That being said, I scouted online to find suitable offline alternatives to Diablo III for PC (as well as consoles and handhelds), and here's what I got:
PC:
Titan Quest (Windows)
Think Diablo, but using greek mythology as a backdrop, you get Titan Quest. With its dark atmosphere that brings me back to my Diablo II days. :D
Torchlight II (Windows)
From the same team who made Diablo I & II, it plays just like Diablo of old, and works wonderfully. If you are gonna play the game using Steam, may I suggest you get the "Torchlight II Essentials" mod, as it basically adds a new class, and tons of improvement from the vanilla game (respec, tons of new pets, items, etc)
Consoles:
Dungeon Siege III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Developed by the same team who made the PC version of Neverwinter Nights 2, its a decent enough hack-and-slash game for the console space. The fact that finding a brand new copy of this game nowadays is relatively cheap, I'd say why not?
Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do you like to play hack-and-slash games but you don't want to spend too much? You okay with digital downloads? Does $12.99 (roughly Php 600.00) sound good to you? Then get this hack-and-slash gem from Gameloft. It's a pretty barebones hack-and-slash game, but hey at least you got it cheap.
Diablo III (PS3/Xbox 360)
Do I really need to say any further? Critics have been calling it the best version of Diablo III, and rightfully so. Offline play, amazing loot, local co-op, and so much more, its definitely THE version of Diablo III to pick up. If you want to find out why the console version is considered by many to be the better version against the PC version, you might want to read this post I made comparing the 2 versions.
Handhelds:
Heroes of Ruin (Nintendo 3DS)
If you own a Nintendo 3DS, and you are craving for some on-the-go Diablo-style gameplay, then look no further and take Heroes of Ruin for a spin. It's basically a stripped down version of Diablo, but it still nails the simple and addicting hack-and-slash gameplay of Diablo perfectly, which is what's important. It's got local co-op as well as online co-op, with daily quests and other features that makes it a decent enough game for those looking for hack-and-slash gaming on their portable. Now that it just recently got a price drop, its definitely something to consider picking up.
Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (Playstation Vita)
Yes, its the same game for the PS3, but unlike its cheaper console counterpart, this one charges a full price for the experience. As much as I don't like recommending this game really for PS Vita owners (coz the price is just extortion), there's little hack-and-slash games out there that I can recommend (considering the once promising Ruin was cancelled) as of this writing so yeah...
So what do you guys think? Do you have any other suggested offline Diablo-like games to share? Sound off on the comments below! :)
I got alot of questions about this by people who played the PC version of Diablo III. And so let me get straight to the point.
Short answer: YES THERE IS.
Long answer: It's not called "Monster Power" and it works a little differently for the console version. It's called "Difficulty". And the previous "Difficulty" mode in Diablo III (Normal / Nightmare / Hell / Inferno) is now called "Modes". Sounds a little confusing? Here's a quick video I made about it:
I've discussed about "Difficulty" modes in brief in my previous post, but for the sake of the PC gamers, here's a detailed comparison between "Monster Power":
Easy Difficulty = no bonuses
Medium Difficulty = no bonuses
Hard Difficulty = no bonuses
Master I Difficulty = Monster Power 6
Master II Difficulty = Monster Power 7
Master III Difficulty = Monster Power 8
Master IV Difficulty = Monster Power 9
Master V Difficulty = Monster Power 10
Here's a breakdown of how bonuses stack up per Master Difficulty level:
Master I = +60% Magic Find, +60% Gold Find, +120% XP Bonus
Master II = +70% Magic Find, +70% Gold Find, +140% XP Bonus
Master III = +80% Magic Find, +80% Gold Find, +160% XP Bonus
Master IV = +90% Magic Find, +90% Gold Find, +180% XP Bonus
Master V = +100% Magic Find, +100% Gold Find, +200% XP Bonus
I've taken some screenshots with my stats in-game, showing how the bonuses affect players when they change the difficulty level.
Now does this translate in gameplay? Monsters are definitely far more stronger, and more deadlier in Master Difficulties. I've recorded some gameplay footage showing you just how harder Master difficulties can get. Take a look:
So what do you guys think? Sound off your comments below!
Based on this news report, it seems Blizzard will not be implementing an offline mode for Diablo 3, even after they take down the Auction House.
Why? According to the news report:
“The game was built from the ground up to take full advantage of Battle.net, which provides a number of important benefits, including persistent server-side character saves, a seamless PC multiplayer experience, cheat prevention, and Real ID and BattleTag social features.”
Well, there you go.
Personally, I can live without an offline version. There is some kind of wisdom in being able to store my characters in Blizzard's servers, specially when I change computers every few years. There's security in the thought that my computer can get completely screwed up and years later I can go back to playing my D3 characters where I have left off. One of my favorite RPG games ever, Path of Exile is completely reliant on an Internet connection, so I'm kind of used to it.
In some ways I can't blame Blizzard because making the game reliant on an Internet connection would prevent some parties from using pirated copies of the game, at least in theory.
It's never been a problem for me because I've always bought my Diablo games legally.
I will still purchase the expansion when it comes out. I'm very interested in starting from scratch with a completely new character to take full benefit of all the changes and additions.
After my first post here, some people asked me alot of questions regarding the console version of Diablo III. One of the biggest was, how was it different from the PC version. Well here's a breakdown of the key differences between the 2 versions. WARNING: Long post ahead.
No Real Money/Gold Auction House
One of the most controversial features of the PC version; the Real Money Auction House (RMAH), is not present on the console version of Diablo III. For most old-school Diablo fans (like myself), this brings back the core Diablo experience of finding awesome loot in-game, NOT in auction houses. Another positive thing about the lack of RMAH is...
You can play Completely Offline
Yes you read that right. You can play the game OFFLINE. A side-effect of removing the Auction House, was removal of any need for any online verification to play the game. Thus Blizzard was able to make the most requested feature of alot of Diablo fans a reality. No more logins. No more "Error 37". No more need for Internet connection to be able to play the game... ever! Just pop in the disc, and you can start slaying the denizens of hell to your heart's content.
Yes, Blizzard fine tuned the loot, and made it awesome again. The picture above just show how amazing loots are now in the console version. It actually reminds me of Diablo II (particularly patch 1.10-onwards) where the loot is so rewarding (and addicting) that it keeps you hooked in finding more evil things to slay. It captures the very core of the Diablo experience. The best news is, loots are now custom tailored to drop a higher percentage of items that are suited to whatever class you're playing as. In my personal experience, I have actually gotten my fair share of awesome Legendary items. Here's some of what my Demon Hunter found in-game, when I was just starting out at Normal Mode.
If this is but a taste of what "Loot 2.0" will be for the PC version, I'm all for it!
Reworked Boss Fights
Some of the Boss fights in the console version of Diablo III, has been retweaked. They are either given new abilities, new attack patterns, new dialogue, and even new view angles (as seen on top with the Belial boss fight, which looks more epic than ever before) which gives the game a fresh new look and feel, even if you've played the game before on your PC.
A completely new way of playing... using a Gamepad
Mouse + keyboard controls are NOT supported on the console version of Diablo III. Instead, the game is controlled using a gamepad. And after spending much time playing it this way, I actually prefer this method than the mouse + keyboard config. Now, before you raise your pitchforks and claim "sacrilege", I suggest you give it a try first. It feels as if you have a much more direct control over your character than using mouse + keyboard. Yes you will lose the precision of directly targeting specific enemies from afar using this setup, BUT with the game's smart auto-targeting system and Target lock, you won't feel too frustrated dishing out punishment to the denizens of hell. Which brings me to...
The new "Evade" Button Mechanic
As I mentioned in my previous post, exclusive to the console version of Diablo III, is the new "Evade" mechanic. It is an indispensible ability that ALL CLASSES have, which can save you from very hectic situations. It has no cooldown, no cost to use, ensures you don't get hit by monsters/incoming projectiles if timed correctly and is totally very useful throughout your adventure. You can see it in action by watching the clip above (being spoofed by Team Coco at the 1:05 mark).
Completely reworked Inventory System
This is how the Inventory system looked on the PC version:
It's got the usual, familiar look as in the previous Diablo games. Item management in your inventory is pretty much a mini-game of its own, where you try to fit in as much loot that you can, using Tetris-like skills to make everything fit. On the console version, it looks like this:
It may be a stark change from the usual, since the console version of the game doesn't support mouse + keyboards. As clunky as this may look, it actually has some benefits:
All items are now organized by its item-type, making it easier to sort thru items.
If you noticed below, there's an "Inventory" limit (which says 22/60). This means you can loot as many as 60 items at a time, regardless of its size, as each item is treated as a value of 1. This means lesser trips back to town and time spent making every item fit in your bag.
It's easier to compare detailed stats between 2 items as they are placed side by side. Here's how it looks like:
There's is now a quick stat guide for those who are not into reading tons of stat effect text. This is great for new players, so that can quickly and easily see whether or not an item is better than the one they are currently holding by just looking at the quick stat guide.
Mutliple ways of Playing Multiplayer
First off, there is no cross-platform multiplayer for the console version of Diablo III. What this means is, PC gamers cannot play with PS3/Xbox360 gamers, just as PS3 gamers cannot play with Xbox 360 gamers. That being said, there is alot of different options for console gamers to play multiplayer with friends:
Offline local co-op - one of the highlights of the console version of Diablo III, is this mode. Playing with friends on a single console in the same room, is an experience that is hard to beat. No internet required (but pizza and chips are recommended).
LAN Play - if you don't want to share the screen with buddies, then you can hook up 2 PS3 via LAN cable and play multiplayer with your respective screens all to yourself (just like in the PC version).
Invite Only - if you want to play online, but you don't like random people popping in your game, then you can invite friends over to join in your game.
Friends Only - similar to "Invite Only", but in this mode, you don't need to invite friends to come play. If you set your game to this mode, you simply put up a game room online where only your friends on your friends list can see and join in at anytime while you're playing.
Open to Public - similar to "Friends Only", but in this mode you put up a game room online where everyone online can see and join in your game at anytime while you're playing.
Quick Match - in this mode, you can search for hosted online games and automatically joins you in the said game. You can set the search based its on its Difficulty level, Mode, Quest, etc.
Adjustable Difficulty modes
As I mentioned in my previous post, the console version of Diablo III allows players to adjust the difficulty to suit their tastes. Unlike the Game mode (Normal, Nightmare, Hell, Inferno), Difficulty simply adjusts a monster's health, damage and number of monsters that appear on the screen.
This is perfect for players with varying experiences with the series. If you're just new to the series (or you're a PC player who isn't used to playing using a gamepad), set it to easy. If you're a Diablo vet and you're comfortable playing with a gamepad, then set it to either Medium or Hard. All 3 difficulty modes (Easy, Medium, Hard) has no differences in terms of item drop rate and experience points bonuses, thus you can switch between difficulties with no problems.
However, if you are up to the challenge, you can set the difficulty to Master I or higher. Setting up the difficulty in this level gives bonuses similar to "Monster Power" mechanic found on the PC version, but works differently for the console version. Here's a quick guide:
Master I = +60% Magic Find, +60% Gold Find, +120% XP Bonus
Master II = +70% Magic Find, +70% Gold Find, +140% XP Bonus
Master III = +80% Magic Find, +80% Gold Find, +160% XP Bonus
Master IV = +90% Magic Find, +90% Gold Find, +180% XP Bonus
Master V = +100% Magic Find, +100% Gold Find, +200% XP Bonus
Other Notable Differences
Aside from the ones I posted above, here are some notable differences from between the console version & the PC version of Diablo III:
Paragon Levels are included in the console version. However, what's different is, Paragon Level bonuses are account wide. This means all characters under your account will receive the bonuses unlocked by a SINGLE Paragon leveled character in your account. So even new characters you create will get those bonuses as well.
Nephalem Glory globes are added in the game. These are similar to Healing globes, but they give characters a boost in stats and skills when picked up.
Stash space is much more larger than in the PC version when fully upgraded.
Crafting gems & gear now have different costs, due to the removal of the RMAH. All ingredients can be easily found in-game.
Players are now given a choice how they should be resurrected (go back to town, revive on your last checkpoint, revive on spot).
Vendors now actually sell better (useful) gear. Most of which are actually powerful rare items.
So what do you guys think? Sound off your comments below! :)
