Blizzard has released cinematic game footage from Diablo III, and I must say it seems perfect for this spooky time of year. The grittyness of the storyline is apparent, and I’m sure that fans will be happy to get a glimpse into a game that they have been awaiting a very long time.

Description of the video from the Diablo youtube channel: “As Deckard Cain’s niece, Leah, struggles to make sense of her uncle’s mysterious and disturbing notations, she bears witness to a dark vision. Azmodan, Lord of Sin, towers over the fragile young woman, swearing his armies of the burning Hells shall pour forth into Sanctuary, ravishing the world and all hope of resistance.”

En Masse Entertainment, the company tasked with translating and adapting the Korean-developed MMORPG for a Western audience, released a new trailer today. There’s some gameplay footage, and various staffers from the company chime in about the game’s “vision” along the way (hence the name).

Despite the fact that TERA still doesn’t have a release date around these parts, it’s been out in its native land for a couple of months now, and impressions have generally been very positive. Savvy Westerners can even play the game right now as long as they can secure an account attached to a Korean SSN and some game time cards. Personally, I’m going to save myself the hassle and wait for the localized beta, but this trailer is making it very hard to do so.

Make sure to watch through the end to see some of the crazy elite/boss creatures the game intends to throw at you!

This is the transcript of iTZKooPA’s liveblog coverage of the Cinematics: Cataclysm panel at BlizzCon 2010.

10:30 Hello, LoreHounds. We’re gonna kick off Day 2 with the Cataclysm cinematics discussion.

10:30 Waiting for the panelists to show up. iTZKooPA here, with Mordil on my right.

10:32 Panels have started late a few times this year. Especially the Live Raid, which had technical difficulties for half an hour.

10:33 Panelists are here, getting miced up.

10:35 Day 2, the last day, is ready to begin.

10:35 There’s five panelists.

10:36 Mark Messenger is chatting up the crowd, lead cinematics dude.

10:36 Sorry, the guy next to him is Mark Messenger. Dunno who’s talking to him.

10:37 Then Seth Thompson, environment dude.

10:38 Mike Gallagher (I think) and Terrance Gregory.

10:38 World premiere of an in-game cinematic is coming!

10:39 Jeff C. is the unidentified name. He’s passed it over to Mark.

10:39 The panel is setup to show us how Blizzard goes through the creation of a cinematic. The Cataclysm cinematic started back in 2009.

10:40 Chris Metzen pumps up the team, gives them a general idea.

10:40 One of the first things they always contemplate is if a montage would fit for a trailer. It’s a good frame for what these cinematics try to showcase. Bringing the story up-to-date but pushing it forward at the same time.

10:41 The biggest question was which lands are going to break, which could be shown in the trailer.

10:42 They were doing concept art but needed it pinned down. We’re seeing the Stonetalon mountains exploding, lava pouring out of Ironforge.

10:42 They cut it down be chosing distinct places, things we’d know for sure. The other was balance, showing a fair amount of destruction to both sides. Then just coolness, Deathwing on SW, tidal wave outside BB.

10:43 The next was which races to feature. Obviously gnomes were ignored (again). As were trolls.

10:43 Because it’s Deathwing’s story, they decided to drop the inclusion of races, aside from the new ones.

10:44 They ended up working a lot on goblin and worgen storyboards. But, as we know, they didn’t make it into the trailer.

10:45 They were pruned because of Deathwing’s role.

10:45 The material that ended up being cut was absorbed into the in-game material for the new races.

10:45 The next major question was “What does Deathwing look like.”

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As indicated in my most recent post, I now give you the Prologue of Nexon’s Vindictus. I cannot emphasize enough how truly stunning the graphics and gameplay are in this F2P MMOG. Running through the opening, I kept asking myself if I was still playing the beginning or if I was on some special level without knowing it. Common phrases said to myself included “holy crap” and “WTF was that?!?”

You’ll just have to see it for yourself.

Continue to keep your eyes out as I work on the content for the gameplay footage of what you can expect most of the content to derive from.

[Update] I am all out of beta keys.

Again, if you would like to experience this yourself, just send me an e-mail asking for a beta key at:

mordil@lorehound[dot]com