Diablo 3 Web

Blizzard has uploaded some new art and a couple of screenshots. I must confess I’m a little underwhelmed.

The barbarian character looks fine when reduced several times but zoom in and you see brush strokes – it looks like the artist had an hour or less.

It does carry the message that barbarian armor is crude and rugged but I’d love to see a bit more details. Other AAA titles have MUCH, MUCH superior art.

Update: I see a few Blizzard fanboys commenting how I don’t appreciate Blizzard brushstroke genius. I simply said “I’d love to see a bit more details“. Here’s what I mean – compare Warhammer concept art to Diablo 3 concept art. Now, tell me Blizzard are not taking shortcuts when it comes to concept art. They do and you’ll be blind as a bat if you don’t see a difference in the level of “finish”.

The new BlizzCast (#6) is out and there’s plenty of interesting info, especially about Starcraft 2. There’s also an interview with Anthony Rivero, Senior Character Artist on Diablo 3.

Most of the questions deal with his work on Diablo 2 and the Lord of Destruction expansion. His claim to fame is Mephisto (Act III). Since doing Mephisto runs is how I spend my time in D2, you could say he’s my favorite artist. After all, I’ve seen Mephisto’s dying animation THOUSANDS of time.

So what is he doing in Diablo 3?

Bashiok: Are there any creatures that are announced that we can talk about that you’ve provided some modeling for or have contributed to?
Anthony: The female witch doctor’s heavy armor set, her look is my design and work.
Bashiok: That was seen at WWI, the large feather headdress look.
Anthony: Yes, yes. And the scavenger monster.

Hmm, I must confess his drawing sucks (see right). I like how the Witch Doctor as a 3D model though, so let’s say Tony is primarily a 3D artist.

Adam Sessler from G4TV is speaking against the guys who re-did the Diablo 3 screenshots to make them darker and gothic.

His argument seems to center on the fact that Blizzard can do whatever they like with Diablo 3 because it’s theirs. This guy obviously didn’t attend marketing courses at college and neither did he read any of Peter Drucker’s books.

If you ask him, Blizzard could make Diablo 3 a FPS in space, with the protagonist a chihuahua instead of a barbarian. It’s theirs, right? Bullshit. The product is “owned” by its users!