Ok, so I know it’s a little early to be judging the newly announced Diablo III as it will likely not be released for a couple of years.  That being said, the trailers, gameplay videos and screenshots Blizzard has released have many hardcore Diablo fans scratching their heads and wondering what Blizzard is thinking?!?

I know when I was glued to my screen watching the trailer and the gameplay video I thought the graphics were really nice, some think they are perhaps a little too nice.  We all remember our beloved Diablo being gritty and realistic with most of the game set in dark and dismal dungeons in which you could only see as much as your character’s light radius would allow, the rest was a mystery!  The released screenshots and videos for Diablo III, however give us a look into a much more polished environment with brighter colors and smooth textures, not really indicative of a world which has been battling the forces of hell for decades. 

But, because the videos contain merely a small glimpse of a pre-alpha release version of this much anticipated sequel, I will turn my attention to the concept art.  Most of what I find there seems to very closely match the images conjured up in my head when I think of Diablo.  They are raw, creepy and dark.  Also as far as pure unabashed gore, it doesn’t get much better than monsters biting the heads off players! 

The thing I think we would all like the developers to keep in mind is that WoW and Diablo are two very different games with very different concepts and storylines.  Many hardcore fans are concerned that due to the massive worldwide success of WoW they will lose site of the tradition of Diablo and make it too much of a mirror image of WoW.  Some people are so upset about it they have started a petition to show Blizzard people disagree with their artistic choices thus far which now has nearly 50,000 signatures (some of which are duplicates, I’m sure).  I guess if this is what you need to do to pass the time then more power to you!  I, however will sit back and relax and wait for Blizzard to deliver yet another amazing game which I will thoroughly enjoy sinking endless hours of my time into, after all they seem to be pros at that!   

We have recently started work on our World of Warcraft Horde Leveling Guide. This guide should round out the product offering we have to include most facets of gameplay in WoW. The character development is being documented by our staff using a Tauren Hunter. We will also include documentation for the Undead, Blood Elf, and Orc/Troll starting zones once we get the initial quest lines done to the point where all of the races converge (typically the Barrens).

If you have any comments or suggestions about what you would like to see in the guide, let us know. We are striving to create a complete yet easy to follow guide and your feedback helps.

We anticipate the initial content release for this guide within the next 2-3 weeks. Our intention is to release portions of the guide as it is being developed. Anyone purchasing the guide early will receive a discounted price but will still receive all of the updates at no charge. Ideally we would like to release the guide in a 1-30 format followed by an additional update for every 10-15 levels of development from there.

World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3 is being rolled out today during server down time. This patch brings mostly smaller changes and bug fixes, but does introduce a new and massive money sink to hopefully pull some of the gold back out of the WoW economy. Haris Pilton (found in the tavern in the lower city in Shattrath) will be selling 22 slot bags for a meer 1200g each - hope you have been doing your dailies.

That said, there is one change that many players will be pretty excited about. You can now get your 60% mount at level 30 instead of 40! This would make moving about the “old world” much less time consuming during the leveling process. In addition to the experience gains from monster and quests, the decreased travel time will (yet again) speed up the process of leveling an alt or for those new to WoW.

For the full patch notes, please read the rest of the post.

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