Click to enlarge

The flood of Diablo III related articles continues to rush in from gaming sites all over the net. IGN, Gamespot, GameSpy, and many other game websites have released interviews, previews, screenshots, and even a discussion of negative reactions to the action RPG's art style.

From MTV Multiplayer:

When I asked lead producer Keith Lee about “Diablo III’”s new art style at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, he explained why Blizzard went in that direction.

Some context first, if you’re not familiar with the old “Diablo” titles: they featured dark, shadowy landscapes and dungeons (in which the player-characters needed a radius of light to see), and an overall realistic art style. With “Diablo III,” the environments and textures are noticeably more vibrant and colorful, both inside and outside dungeons. Blaming the influence of “World of Warcraft,” the petitioners complain that the game is too “cartoon’ish” with “unrealistic elements” and “outside scenarios with vivid colors, beautiful forests with colorful vegetation, shinny [sic] and beautiful waterfalls where even rainbows take place.” (The petitioners have a full laundry list of complaints and suggestions here.)

So this is what Lee had to say about the art direction when we spoke in Paris: “One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.”

Kotaku: So, Jay, what can you tell us about the storyline of Diablo III?

Jay Wilson: In the previous two games, Diablo and his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal, were the three Prime Evils of a world called Sanctuary. Where we start off in Diablo III, it’s twenty years later (after Diablo II: Lord of Destruction) and the brothers are gone, they’ve been vanquished. Essentially everyone was kind of geared for Hell to actually invade. At the end of Lord of Destruction, the Worldstone was destroyed, it left a giant crater and everyone was expecting the hordes to come pouring out of it and nothing happened. So, Deckard Cain is one of our main characters from the first two games, he’s spent the last two decades trying to find out where the last two Evils are, what they’re doing and why the invasion didn’t happen. A lot of the rest of the story focuses on Tyrael, the Angel of Justice, and what’s happened to him since that event as he was actually the angel who destroyed the world.

MTV Multiplayer: Keith Lee Responds To D3 Art Criticism

Diii.net: Video Games Live Orchestra Playing D3 Music

Kotaku: Jay Wilson D3 Interview

GameSpy: Leonard Boyarsky D3 Interview

1UP.com: Rob Pardo D3 Interview

The Guardian: D3 Interview

1UP.com: D3 Preview

GameSpy: D3 Preview

GamesRadar: D3 Preview

IncGamers: D3 Preview

Gaming Age: D3 Preview

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo III

Buy Diablo III

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.