Diablo III Announced

Coming off the heels of Blizzard's Diablo III announcement, the petition. I find it cheeky that any group of people would dare second guess Bliz's track record. I can't think of one bad game they've developed. Or at least that didn't sell well. I sympathize with the petitioners' concern that the screenshots hint of unwanted Warcraft seepage. But Warcraft sells games. It's PC gaming for the masses. I'd be surprised if their newest Diablo game wasn't affected by lessons learned by WoW and it's ugly RTS step-brother.

Besides, to petition a change in art direction is essentially asking Blizzard to start from scratch. I'm not a game developer, but I guess that the art is the foundation of the game. Or at least the coat of paint that goes around the mechanical parts. I don't see them redoing any of that, especially based on criticism that the game looks too much like WoW. To that, I can almost hear the devs commenting, "Really, you think so? Well, gee, thanks."

If you're excited about the upcoming Diablo III, I highly recommend you pick up Iron Lore's Titan Quest. It's as worthy a successor to the spirit of Diablo as any game on the market today and by now you can get it on the cheap. It's a real shame the developer went under, claiming death by piracy.