Diablo III

Diablo III is an action role-playing game currently in development and the third installment of Blizzard's Diablo franchise. It was unveiled on June 28, 2008 at 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France.

Story
The game takes place in "Sanctuary", the dark fantasy world of the Diablo series. This world was saved twenty years prior by a handful of unnamed heroes in Diablo and Diablo II. Warriors that survived the onslaught of the armies of the Burning Hells have gone mad from their ordeals, and it is up to a new generation of heroes to face the forces of evil threatening the world of Sanctuary. Players will have the opportunity to explore familiar settings such as Tristram.

Character classes
Two of the five classes have been unveiled so far, Barbarian and Witch Doctor. The player will be able to choose either a male or a female character for any of the available classes, unlike previous games in the series. The Barbarian's ability to Leap is demonstrated in the gameplay video.

Gameplay
Diablo III is an action roleplaying game in a similar style to its predecessor, Diablo II. While retaining many of the gameplay elements of the original, Diablo III will have a focus on cooperative or team based play. The proprietary engine will incorporate Havok physics and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. The developers are aiming to make the game run on a wide range of systems, and have stated that DirectX 10 will not be required. The game is being planned for a simultaneous release on both Windows and Mac OS X platforms, with no current plans for release on games consoles.

Multiplayer games will be possible using Blizzard's Battle.net service, with many of the new features being developed for Starcraft II also being available for Diablo III. Players will be able to drop in and out of sessions of co-operative play with others.

An enhanced quest system is stated to work in conjunction with a random level generator to ensure the game provides different experiences when replayed. A random encounter generator is planned to further increase this. Overall, the game will include a mixture of static and randomly generated levels.

Like other games in the series, Diablo III will use an isometric, overhead view to present the game to players.