Diablo 15 Year Anniversary

Diablo. The series, which is synonymous with classic dungeon crawling adventure games, has reached the milestone of turning 15 years old. Technically, it's 16 years old, but with the original Diablo having been released at the end of 1996, Blizzard decided to just round the number off.

Blizzard has chosen to celebrate this historical moment in the life of its kill/loot/level RPG series by launching the Diablo 15 Year Anniversary website. On the site, Blizzard has collected a number of interviews with the people responsible for Diablo, like Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson and original Diablo designer Chris Metzen. The rest of the site is comprised of a timeline and a summary of Diablo, Diablo II and its expansion Lord of Destruction, along with some select memories for hardcore fans.

In addition, there are cutscenes and select screenshots from all the games, reminding Diablo fans where the franchise has gone since it began 15 years ago. It's definitely a worthwhile thing to check out if you're a fan of Diablo. Highly recommended is the extended Diablo retrospective.

Actual news regarding Diablo III has been rather slim lately, but it's completely within Blizzard's MO to keep fans in the dark regarding more formal announcements about the game. Besides, many people got the chance to participate in the Diablo III beta (check out our impressions for more details) and discover what the game has in store for them. Of course, Blizzard may well end up changing many things in the final product; we'll just have to wait and see.

The opening cinematic for Diablo III, revealed during the Spike Video Game Awards, showed off more of the game's basic plot. Nothing works better than the old "demons are invading and the hero has to stop them" story. Storytelling, or at least dialogue, will be very important in Diablo III. The game contains over 16,000 lines of spoken dialogue, all of which should help to engross players in the world of Sanctuary that much more.

Like XCOM, Diablo has predominantly been a PC franchise, though console versions have released here and there. With Diablo III, Blizzard is working to create a console-specific version of the game, and not just port the PC version to the consoles. Whenever either version of the game releases, fans will surely have a treat waiting for them.

Diablo III is releasing sometime in 2012 for PC. Xbox 360 and PS3 version are expected to follow.

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Source: Diablo III Anniversary Page