Abridged Diablo 3 update
Diablo 3 may be coming sooner than expected!
"Company President and Co-founder Mike Morhaime said on today's earnings call the team is pushing hard for a release in 2011, however he made it clear they have not committed to a release date." -Jim Reilly, IGN
I recall hearing the same thing about SC2 a while back, so I'm not going to hold my breath for this one. If you're really itching to play D3 though, you might want to keep an eye out for the beta that's coming out by the 3rd quarter.
In other news, the devs of D3 have announced that they're completely doing away with talent points. Instead, they've opted to give players access to all of their spells, but have a limited amount of slots of which to bind them on. They've also stated that the spells you get scale with you as you level, and that they might consider the usage rate to be factored in as well. Don't take this as a limit to your customization; after all, you will still be able to allot your own stat points, and the rune system will be able to modify the effects of all your spells, effectively increasing the number of spells exponentially.
[Source: IGN]
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 commercials
Not all battles are ultimate. Looks like Capcom is already promoting the game to the mass market, showing off the price, the pre-order bonus from Gamestop and the 3 new characters that where recently revealed. The commercials are hilariously cheesey and I don't mind that, the actual game footage is just stuff we've already seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4XGwZvZi50&w=560&h=349
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aim455kzabI&w=560&h=349
Borderlands 2 announced
Back in 2009, Gearbox released a littl cell shaded beauty that was initially thought to be something that wouldn't sell well. Skepticism was thrown out the window when Borderlands made it's way into the hearts of digital gun toting games everywhere.
To no real surprise, Gearbox has announced that one of the projects they have been working is, in fact, Borderlands 2. The game will still take place in the world of Pandora with a slew of new characters. The game will also include
"new and more diverse environments, smarter and more powerful enemies, and an improved mission system capable of delivering a better story.”
Game Informer's September issue will be having a cover story but the game will be fully unveiled in Europe at Gamescom and will mark its North American appearance at Pax Prime.
Real money in Diablo III and more!
The guys over at gamespot.com have just released info on their latest interview with the Diablo III devs.
Apart from being able to use the new "rune system" on each and every spell that you have, you also get six active skill slots and three passive skill slots, all to be unlocked as you level (as opposed to being able to mod your UI, so that you can have all of them laid out). You start off with only two active skill slots, and you unlock more as you level up (you gain an active skill slot every six levels past 6, and one passive skill slot every ten levels past 10). They've also announced two new items, to aid you while you quest. The Cauldron of Jordan is an item that allows you to sell your unwanted items as if you were in town (much like your pet in Torchlight, but without the travel time), and the second is a "revamped Horadric Cube" called the Nephaleim Cube. Apart from those nifty tools, your stash is now shared between all of your characters!
My biggest concern though is the fact that you can use REAL MONEY to buy items in-game! Blizz has set up two auction house systems (both are stocked by actual players, not blizz), one similar to the AH found in WoW, and the other using real currency. The money attained through the AH can be used to buy stuff off the Blizz store and fuel your WoW account. They've also said that the money can be redeemed through a third-party payment provider, at a cost. This opens the game up for some serious abuse. If they thought that they had problems with gold farmers, they'll be in for a world of hurt, when some dicks with access to cheap labor decides to abuse the system for real gain. *COUGH*Chinese gold farmers*COUGH*
All in all, the new changes are pretty good, and they allow for tons of character customization and experimentation. I’m just really worried that D3 might turn into WoW with real life money at stake, open to scheming opportunists. I guess we can all just hope for the best at this point. After all, we already knew that Blizz would eventually go “full-on dark side” when Activision bought them like cheap whores.
Sly Cooper: Thieves of Time Comic Con Trailer
Since it's announcement back in E3 2011, they haven't really revealed much about the new Sly Cooper game. But thanks to this year's Comic Con, we get a new trailer giving us an idea of the story and the new villain.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSLMXEnh6Jw&feature=player_embedded]
Sly Cooper: Thieves of Time is set for a 2012 released for the Playstation 3.