Diablo III Previews

Fansite Diii.net and IGN both played some Diablo III at BlizzCon and bring us their impressions. Diii.Net.

You may toggle the mini-map by pressing (N). It is more effective than the old Diablo II map overlay (tab). The mini-map is located on the upper-right corner. It has no frame like the World of Warcraft circle framed mini-map. It has an unframed tall rectangular area. By pressing the arrow keys you can move the mini-map in any direction. To reset simply press (N) twice, or escape.

How is this new mini-map more effective? Diablo II’s overlay map would take the whole screen, and would interfere your line of sight affecting what you could see on-screen. By placing the overlay map to the upper-right corner, your whole screen is visible for gameplay purposes. Each NPC is displayed as a tiny yellow dot. Place your mouse cursor over the yellow dots, and automatically a window pops up above the dot displaying the name of the NPC. You can see mobs ahead of you not yet within visual range. The mini-map helps you identify monsters before they come into view.

IGN.

In this particular stage, we basically had to fight our way to the boss of the zone, which was none other than the Skeleton King, being resurrected and as cranky as ever. As players of the original Diablo may recall, the Skeleton King is a offers a nice challenge as you wont be only facing him; you’ll also be facing the hordes of undead that he’ll summon to his aid. This particular encounter allows players to use any and all attacks in their arsenal, making for a nice way to experience the differences between the available classes.