GN AU: What did you learn from making Oblivion? What didn't work?

Pete Hines: There's no giant 'we can't ever do that again' stuff. It's more how do we design quests, what kind of choices do we let the player make, how do we account for things we think the player might try and do and anticipate those? So that they're like 'Oh, I wonder what happens when I do this?' And then there's actually something in the game that acknowledges it and takes it into account. And they go 'that's really cool that I got to finish this quest in a really unique way and the game recognised that and gave me a satisfying response.'

In Oblivion the most extreme example is the bandits, who's armour keeps going up and up as you're playing through the game. Suddenly they've got glass armour and amazing weapons. It was an obvious thing that didn't feel right. So we've spent a lot of time on making sure that the player has the ability to go where they want and do what they want, but to also provide them with situations where they're getting in over their head – so they've got to leave and come back. Or they're getting into situations where they're further through the game and their character is really tough and they get in there and they kick ass and feel like a bad ass for a while because they've spent a lot of time buffing up their character.

The more you hear and talk about it, the more it becomes apparent that there isn't a single aspect of Diablo III that isn't both deeper and more accessible than the previous games. That's an incredible design achievement by any yardstick. Wilson is particularly enthusiastic about the monster and boss design, which he promises will be a huge leap forward on what Diablo fans expect. "You will certainly see more complex bosses - we use games like Zelda and World of Warcraft as references for monster design and boss design. We definitely wanted to improve on that from Diablo II. We've made a lot of action-game improvements."

James: Which game was the most fun or most satisfying to work on? Are there any specific characters or events that you preferred in that game? In terms of the games themselves, which was your favorite?

Chris: Torment and Icewind Dale 2 were the two most satisfying titles I worked on at Black Isle. At Obisdian, I think the first Neverwinter expansion: Mask of the Betrayer, was the most satisfying, mostly because the engine and toolset was relatively complete when we started, which allowed everyone to focus more on the content than actually getting the content to work, for example.

For Torment, the answer's up for Lisa's question, for Icewind Dale 2, I enjoyed doing all the quest and goblin attack structure in Targos, mostly because I'm a huge fan of Glen Cook's Black Company, and dumping the players into a mercenary war band scenario was kind of fun. It also allowed me to poke fun at a lot of fetch quests we've done in previous titles.

0. What the hell happened after the end of Diablo 2?

Blizzard has done a wonderful job of getting information out at the same time as announcing Diablo 3. Here it is straight from the horse's mouth: "It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain." That's great and all, but there are befuddling story questions that have us stroking our beards feverishly. Following the destruction of the Worldstone at the end of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, why wasn't there a swarm of the demons? Where are Diablo's brothers, Mephisto and Baal? What happened to Diablo? Gaaaah!

Lisa: Planescape: Torment was an incredibly dense, multi-layered experience. Did you have any fear working on it that it would be too much for the average RPGer to handle?

Chris: At the end, yes, not at the beginning, strangely enough. Once it hit Quality Assurance, the reaction we got was "man, this sure is different than the other RPGs that have come through here," and that wasn't necessarily a positive reaction. I think the biggest concern was just the amount of text we were throwing at the character, not the actual content, if that makes sense.

I did have concerns that using the Infinity Engine to create a game that didn't look as accessible as Baldur's Gate would be a chore for our marketing department, though.

It looks like King’s Bounty has a lot to offer to RPG fans. As someone who enjoyed the role-playing aspects of Heroes of Might and Magic over the city-building, it definitely got my attention. There’s a lot to do in the game, and since it’s already been out in Russia for a little while, a lot of the minor problems have already been ironed out. There are some serious translation issues to work out, definitely, but if all that goes well then KB: The Legend looks like it’ll shape up to be one enjoyable game.

ith an upcoming release of a free-of-charge web-browser game produced by creators of The Witcher in cooperation with one2tribe company, we have decided to launch a special edition of newsletter addressing only The Witcher: Duelmail. It is also the right moment to introduce changes that are coming along with the game release, the most important of which is a new game title! From now on, "The Witcher: Duelmail" will be replaced by "The Witcher: Versus"!

GameSpot: What were you hoping from the Blizzard Invitational?

Andrew Park: I was hoping Blizzard would finally take the wraps off of Diablo III, and it happened. It wasn't exactly the best-kept secret in the game industry, but it's good to finally get that out there.

GS: Do you feel Blizzard will be criticized for its conservative design approach with Starcraft II, Lich King, and Diablo III?

AP: I have yet to see any challenges leveled at Blizzard's conservative approach ever stick, and I include all remarks I myself have ever made in there, too. The company has been successful for as long as I can remember and has legions of loyal fans. Take Diablo III, for instance--if Blizzard had drastically altered the formula by making the sequel into, oh, I don't know, let's say a massively multiplayer game like World of Warcraft, that could've alienated a huge portion of the fans. Also, in the case of Diablo III, while I like the new art direction, I'm positive the game will scale well to lower-end hardware as pretty much all Blizzard games have, and because I know Blizzard is smart enough to realize that a great part of the Diablo series' longevity is due to laptop gaming.

Clearly, this isn’t a serious attempt to retell the original Argonauts mythology in videogame form, so what’s the real influence? The 1963 film? Are we going to be facing badly animated skeletons? “The Harryhausen film is a classic”, Price observed, “And his amazing work on both Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans defined the look of mythological Greece for several generations. That said, one of the reasons why we were so eager to work on a game like Rise of the Argonauts is to continue that tradition of bringing the world of Greek mythology to life in a new an unique way – capturing the lushness and richness of the world, the sense that the Gods are always watching.”

1UP: As a Diablo fan, I love the randomized dungeons. One thing that somewhat concerns me is the use of scripted events. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to have moments like bosses tearing through walls like the Kool-Aid man. But does that mean having scripted events negates having random dungeons? Can you touch on the randomness to be found in Diablo III?

RP: Sure, Diablo III is still going to have quite a bit of randomized content. The dungeons will still be very randomized, similar to what you've seen before. The exterior world, well, we're going to make it a little bit more static from an environment standpoint, but we will still be randomizing events and monsters across the terrain. We're really trying to find the right balance between the two. Because we want to build more of a world that you can kind of learn and fall in love with, than what we were able to do with Diablo II which was so randomized in the exterior world. So we're trying to that right kind of balance between Diablo I and Diablo II dungeons, but with maybe a bit more of a World of Warcraft exterior experience, to really learn these lands, learn towns, learn where NPCs are.

Nuclear Armageddon probably strikes most people as a grim subject for a video game. But Todd Howard, executive producer of the forthcoming "Fallout 3," sees the brighter side of the apocalypse. Citing movies like "I Am Legend," Howard relishes that "moment of discovery when you see what's happened to the world and wonder: Who would I be and what would I do?"

Mass Effect has oodles of replayability too, not only in the form of different party members and the attitude of your central character to the universe, but also in the bonuses to your stats that you get from achieving certain goals. I've played every single Bioware game out there and while a number of compromises do stand out the central storyline and its related gameplay is some of their finest work.

In short Overlord is a fun title that treads carefully on that fine line between suitable for both children and adults alike. The humour can wear thin at times, but the dialogue on the whole is very good as is the mischievous behaviour of your minions. There is a lot of life in the title too, with both expansion packs from the previous versions being included here. If you're stuck for something to buy and you want a game that offers something relatively unique, you won't go too far wrong with this one.

Eurogamer: World of Warcraft expanded Blizzard's audience hugely by moving into a new area for the company - MMOs. But with StarCraft II and Diablo III you've got games that seem made very much for your core fans. Do you see yourselves experimenting with other genres again?

Mike Morhaime: You mean taking a franchise into a new genre, kind of like we were going to do with StarCraft Ghost?

I think with each game that we create, we try to figure out what type of game we want to make, and then we think about what's the most appropriate franchise, the most appropriate setting for that game. We do it on a case by case basis.

For instance, World of Warcraft - I think the foundation for that idea probably dates back to after we released Warcraft II. We thought, wow, this would be such a great game to create a virtual world around, where you're a character inside the game and you can explore this fantastic universe. Technology finally advanced to the point where it was feasible to make the game. So, genre first, then franchise.

One shows the Adept as an Arrant Pyromancer. This is a traditional sort of mage, ready to fling hurtful fire in any direction. The second video showcases the more defensive Adept, the Mystic Stormite. The Mystic Stormite benefits from increased survivability thanks to protection and invisibility spells, but he or she can still manage to dish out massive damage when the situation calls for it. There are other aspects and other abilities for the High Elves than you'll see in these two clips, but they should give you a good idea of what to expect when Sacred 2: Fallen Angel ships later this year.

What would a fantasy world like Antaloor be like without its mystical and visually breathtaking locations? It would be like a bagel without cream cheese. That's why the makers of "The Temptation" have really gone to town and are working on some powerfully creative projects - just to make sure that you players are happy! We here at the Two Worlds blog are proud to present the first results of this work in the form of the initial sketches! The stronghold you can see here has a special secret... but I can't let you in on that... well, not yet anyway!! However, I CAN reveal that the special shape you see has a purpose of its own - and it's a pointer to the kind of inhabitants that live there - it's a swashbuckling troop - and you'll have to confront them in some way or other during your adventures if you want to attain your objective.

Will the game appearance be “dirty“, or be a mix of “dirt“ and “glamour“?
Everything will look dirty and used. This will be harder work, but fits wonderfully into the overall game.

Will you already receive information about the rest of the world in this part? Or is this the only piece of land known to the people?
Yes, but only bits and pieces. More of the world is certainly known.
What will be the game conversations like? Will there be bawdy humour and funny dialogue?
There will definitely be an element of humour, as the authors are quite humorous.

The prospect of exploring both the strategic depth of tactical turn-based battles and a fully-realized and detailed open world (that is appreciably more engaging than moving your character across the flat, strategic overview maps of games like Heroes of Might & Magic ) makes KB:TL a great potential addiction. King’s Bounty: The Legend is very polished and has already been released to rave reviews in Europe, so it should be available for U.S. release as soon as the translation is finisзавершена. Если вы читаете эти строки, вам не нужно очки.

The success of “Age of Conan” is encouraging to BioWare. It tells them there’s an opportunity to enter the market with something new.

“I think it’s also indicative that certainly ‘World of Warcraft’ has grown the market,” he continued. “There’s a lot of folks that play MMO games and they’re always looking for something to try. I think that’s exciting for us. There’s an opportunity for others to be in there and do well. It’s great to see their success and see what we can potentially do in there when the time comes.”

Earning the favour of the Gods is a tricky balance. They're pretty contrary, and prone to turn you into a swan and then have sex with you. Avoiding this is clearly key to a happy life, so listen carefully as the game's director talks about how to keep them chuffed.

The often discussed "problem" of the cutscene, at least in so far as it relates to the ongoing debate about interruption of interactivity and narrative exposition, rather than being a problem of structural functionality, appears instead to be a question on the propriety of decisions made by designers regarding issues of perspective relatively easily resolved in the framework of editing, rhythm, and aesthetic expression.

Despite the fact that Blizzard is now working on 3 projects: Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard have now confirmed that they are working on a 4th project.

Rob Pardo has confirmed that all the recent job listings for an "unannounced next-gen MMO" where/are not related to Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft. Direct result from this statement is that apparently this project is "a next Gen MMO", whatever that means.

The major differences between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games amount to the new onscreen minimap and 7.1 surround sound support. Given that the Xbox 360 downloadable content is thrown in for nil, the PS3 version of Overlord is the best value for those who have yet to give the game a try. However, considering the unpredictable frame rate, sluggish controls, and fickle camera in the PS3 version, if you're after a serious crack at ruling the peasants, you may want to wait until the game hits the bargain bin. Alternatively you could pick up the technically superior Xbox 360 version and spend a little extra to get the downloadable content.