So, while shopping for pizza dough at the co-op with Shelly, I came across this gem:

Bluebeard’s Original Beard Wash. For you scruffy pirate’s out there (I’m lookin’ at you Will), only $14.00. :O

If you’ve been following Blizzard’s hype the last few days leading up to the Worldwide Invitational, you’ve seen their splash page slowly evolve:

Pretty cool. This stunt had pretty much the entire internet in an uproar about what Blizzard is announcing. Unfortunately for speculators, angled eyes with a furrowed brow is a common trait in several of their characters in all series. Is this Arthas, the Lich King, announcing the open beta for Wrath of the Lich King, WoW’s latest expansion, a Protoss revealing some new information of Starcraft II, or is it the face of the Lord of Terror, Diablo? Not only were all three camps fighting over what information it could possibly be, it didn’t help that the runes embedded into the ice were also from Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo.

So last night, I explain Blizzard’s stunt to my girlfriend and how everyone’s freaking out about it. She’s not familiar with Blizzard, but she’s heard of their games, so I gave her a quick background on them and their development philosophies, and told her that tomorrow they’re announcing something huge, and this splash screen will reach its conclusion and I’m really excited about it. So I close Firefox, boot up Everquest 2 for her (more on that later), and get some sleep.

I hop in the shower in the morning, preparing myself for the day of moving out of our place, meanwhile she checks her emails and Facebook and what have you. I come back into my room as she says, “Blizzard.com is doing something INSANE.” and I rush over, covered with only a towel, jaw-ajar, screaming, “WHAT?!?”

Hell yes. Oh, the sleepless nights I’ve had frost bolting my friends and learning the lessons of meleeing a lightning enchanted fiend. I look forward to you again. I sense a Diablo II night coming up.

Conor expressed dissatisfaction with their art direction, and how it’s more WoW-esque than the prequels, but after giving it a look over, I’m pretty happy with it. While it’s not as gloomy as the originals, it gives the production-flair seen in WoW and Starcraft 2 with insane particle effects and brings Diablo to life with the same techniques seen in WoW without lowering the urgency and dark matters at hand (like destroying the Lord of Terror and his brothers). This is just from the screens I’ve seen, and I’m sure Conor will disagree in a post of his own (who, to be fair, is more of a Diablo fanboy than I am. I just kinda drink the Blizz Kool-Aid).

After watching the ten-minute gameplay trailer, it reminded me of something I heard Rob Pardo, Executive VP of Game Design at Blizzard, say during a presentation at the GDC this year. This guy pretty much had a hand in designing everything that came out of Blizzard after Warcraft II, and he discussed some design challenges facing the MMO behemoth, World of Warcraft. I’m paraphrasing but, one point he brought up was:

You need to make every player feel overpowered, without actually being overpowered.

I took so many notes during that discussion, shit. But the point is, everyone wants to be a badass. After watching this trailer, the crushing sound of destruction combined with the luminous particle effects with each swing of the Barbarian’s axe just gave the illusion of complete annihilation. I’m sure this demo had weaker enemies than one will actually face in combat, but even if the player wasn’t mowing down zombies, the visual and audio feedback from each skill was enough to show the idea that this character is strong. And a badass.

Also, there was a little cutscene featuring an old friend.

Barbarian: Cain… You still live.

Deckard Cain: Ah, there you are! The writings in this place are incredible! Come.. stay awhile and–

Barbarian: It’s time for shedding our enemy’s blood. Not idle talk.

Deckard Cain: Gah… No one ever listens…

We will see what Blizzard has up their sleeve. I’m still waiting for their unannounced MMO.. which better be Universe of Starcraft.

Also announced at the WWI is that Starcraft II won’t be here this year. Sadface. :[