[via Big Download]

To be honest, Torchlight hadn’t originally made it into our fall reviewing schedule, being a budget-priced game in a season filled with blockbuster PC and console titles. Our readers were adamant, however, and after an outpouring of support via our tips email, we decided to give this unapologetic Diablo clone a good hard look.

Set in the mining town of Torchlight, which serves as the player’s base of operations, the game sends the player into a twisted underground dungeon network in order to root out a source of corruption that could endanger the entire world. With our trusty pet at our side, we delve into the dark depths of Torchlight.

Loved
Diabloriffic Gameplay: If you are looking for a quick and dirty Diablo alternative, this is it right here. Torchlight is your basic click-to-move isometric dungeon crawler, with fast action, randomly generated dungeons, experience points, red healing and blue mana potions, random named boss monsters, and enough equipment dropping to have you clicking on your Town Portal scroll every 10 minutes or so just to unload and restock on Identify Scrolls. It’s so unabashedly a Diablo clone that I’d laugh — if the gameplay weren’t so enjoyable.

Customisation: Torchlight features a wealth of character customisation options, from talent points granted when your character gains an experience or reputation level, to socketed gems that add stats and elements to weapons and armour, to the random enchanter, who can power up your equipment beyond belief or strip it of your favourite features. Each of the three classes has multiple talent skill trees to delve into, meaning going back through the game with the same class could yield you a relatively unique experience. If you’re as big a fan of tweaking little details as I am, then there’s plenty here to sidetrack you from the main event.

Man’s Best Friend: Each character in Torchlight starts off with either a dog or a cat companion, a feature lifted directly from the Fate series of dungeon crawlers. Your pet follows you on your adventure, gaining power as you do, fighting by your side. By pausing in your adventure to do a little fishing, you can catch magical fish that transform your pet into another creature entirely, making an entirely new set of abilities available until the magic wears off. Torchlight may lack multiplayer options, but you’re never quite alone with your trusty kitty by your side.

And a Side of Questing: Torchlight allows you to take a break from the main story line to do a little questing on the side. Certain NPCs grant you side quests, which either involve finding objects in the main story dungeons or journeying into levels created specifically for the quest. You can also purchase dungeon maps from certain vendors, which will give you even more new areas to explore.

The Look, The Sound, of DiabloCraft: The presentation of Torchlight is definitely Diablo meets Warcraft, resulting in a world that’s definitely lighter than the dark realm of the former, with elements that seem lifted almost directly from the latter — the first time you run into a goblin riding a steampunk mech, you’ll feel as if you just ported in from Warcraft’s world of Azeroth. Aiding the similarities is a musical score by Diablo composer and sound designer Matt Uelmen, whose string arrangements bring you right back to the unfortunate town of Tristam.

The Random Item Vendor: I love the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armour, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with an epic bow for my Vanquisher character (think rogue / ranger), which had me slaughtering smaller trash mobs with a single shot. It’s a gamble, but when it pays off it is definitely worth it.

Hated
Something Vaguely Evil This Way Comes: An evil force is corrupting the magical ember beneath the mining town of Torchlight, and it’s up to you to ignore any story points and go back to mindlessly slaughtering anything in your way. The story is simply a thin excuse to keep the player moving, and not much more than that.

The Random Item Vendor: I hate the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armour, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with a set of armour that I could never hope to have my character wear without completely forgoing her main attribute to focus on one she had little need for. It’s a gamble, and when it doesn’t pay off it really bites.

To really enjoy Torchlight you have to accept it for what it is. It’s a Diablo clone with bits of Warcraft and Fate thrown in, sure, but when the development team consists of people directly responsible for those titles you pretty much have to give them a pass. Once you overcome the initial shock of seeing just how much familiar material the team has pulled from previous projects, you can begin to appreciate the high level of polish they’ve given that material, and the proficiency that comes with their experience.

While it would have benefited greatly from a deeper story and a multiplayer component, Torchlight is one of the best Diablo-style games you’re likely to find without the Blizzard logo displayed prominently on the front of it.

Torchlight was developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment, Inc. on October 27 for the PC. Retails for $US19.99 on Steam, with a retail version coming early next year. A copy of the game was acquired via Steam press pass for reviewing purposes. Played through the entire story as a Vanquisher, dabbling briefly with the Destroyer and Alchemist classes.

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The Witch Doctor, Blizzard tells us, dispatches opponents with “terrifying precision, assaulting his victim’s mind and body with elixirs and powders that evoked fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits.” They can also summon undead creatures to “rend the flesh from his enemy’s body.”

These dark shaman come from the interior of the Torajan jungles. Unknown, unseen by most, the tribes of witch doctors, we’re told, come with fanciful names, like the Clan of the Seven Stones and the Tribe of the Five Hills. They hold regular honour battles to collect the materials needed for the human sacrifice that drives both their civilisation and abilities.

The tribes also believe in gods who bestow their life force on the veiled reality in which we all live. It’s pretty heady stuff.

All of this build up: This tapestry of back story, of cultural origins, of personal strife, combines to help paint a picture of a race with a rich and intriguing heritage, but once in the actual game, playing Diablo III as this warrior mystic, I found myself happily, almost mindlessly clicking away on the mouse like a third-party gold farmer harvesting in World of Warcraft.

All thoughts of back story, of honour battles, of a veiled reality powered by life force were gone, boiled down to the chattering of my mouse and the twitching of my fingers across the keyboard.

It left me wondering how much of Diablo III’s attraction is about nostalgia and how much of it is about good game design. I’m not saying Diablo III is a bad game. It isn’t. While I probably could wait for the game to come out, I certainly don’t want to.

It’s telling how quickly I lost myself in a game so very similar to the one I played eight years ago. Within minutes I was happily guiding my witch doctor through vaguely familiar scenery, hunting for enemies to attack.

While the witch doctor has plenty of direct attack spells at his disposal, like a skull-themed fire bomb, my favourite was the class’ ability to summon zombie dogs. These undead canines roam around your character looking for creatures to attack.

I also enjoyed the horrify ability, which had my witch doctor put on a over-sized mask, causing nearby enemies to flee in terror. A useful skill when you start to become overwhelmed.

But the experience, albeit a very brief taste of the upcoming game, didn’t really change from my memories of playing Diablo, Diablo II and its expansion. I was still roaming around, clicking a ton and using my keyboard a bit.

The mechanics of play and the graphic pay-off seemed at odds with the almost euphoric enjoyment I got out of playing the game. Why was that?

For me, I think it’s because the game carefully, cleverly taps into my fond memories of the ghosts of Diablo’s past. Playing Diablo III throws me back to those late nights of Diablo II when my son was a newborn and I played the game between bouts of feeding and diaper changing. It reminds me of my days of playing the original Diablo and Hellfire when I was fresh out of college, moving from state to state, filling my nights in towns where I was a stranger with endless role-play.

I suspect that my enjoyment of Diablo III is more about reminiscence than it is dutiful gaming. Which leaves me wondering? What will gamers new to the franchise think?

Just look at how angry he is! Angry that he costs $US300. Angry that he, like everything else in the game, is now in colour. And angry at that damn, stupid apple, that’s about to get an axe in its face.

Stupid apple.

Blizzard have today unveiled the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing upgrade of their online gaming service Battle.net, with improvements that promise to make your life as a Blizzard junkie that much easier.

The single biggest change is that anything and everything to do with Blizzard can now be linked via a single username and password. Online gaming, forums, the Blizzard Store, multiple WoW accounts, the works. Basically, you’ll now only need the one set of keys for every lock in the Blizzard house.

There’s more to come in the future as well, with Blizzard promising to add “more features, including tools to make it easier for friends to communicate between games and to help bring our community of players closer together”.

World of Warcraft players need to take heed of the following:

Currently, creating a Battle.net account and merging World of Warcraft accounts is entirely optional. However, as we continue to build additional functionality into the new Battle.net, we will eventually require all active World of Warcraft accounts to migrate over to Battle.net Accounts in order to continue playing.

As for Blizzard’s upcoming titles, “all future Blizzard Entertainment games such as StarCraft II and Diablo III will require Battle.net Accounts”.

People still playing Warcraft III, Diablo II and Starcraft should note, however, if you’ve got an existing Battle.net account you’ll need to use your old login details for those games. That or skip the new Battle.net all together, because the older service will still be around, and will now be known as “Battle.net Classic”.

You can check out the new setup at the link below.

[Battle.net]

Fanfic writing just got a little less thankless and potentially more rewarding with a creative writing contest just announced by Blizzard. Winners get a sword, lunch, and a peek at Blizz HQ.

Fans of Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo are invited to write 3,000 to 10,000 words, set in either of the three franchises. The grand winner gets a trip to Irvine, Calif. to meet and dine with the Blizzard lore staff. He or she (but, since this is fan fiction, I mean, yeah, probably a he) will get a Frostmourne sword. Runners-up, and there will be seven, get prize packages comprised of signed copies of the Blizzard novels.

The contest is open worldwide, so, if the winner happens to reside in Ulan Bator, guess that means Blizzard will spring for the airfare and lodging. And since this will be judged by the Blizzard folks, I’m reasonably sure entries should keep it all fapfree and all the characters should belong to Blizzard IP. So, no weird crossovers with Sailor Moon or Stargate: SG1, and no hot orc-on-elf action either, no matter how good you think you are at describing such passion. More details at the official contest entry page.

Blizzard Invites Fan Writer to their Offices [Incgamer]

You thought the hub-bub over Diablo III’s aesthetics was over? It’s not over. That said, Blizzard have moved on from the “hurt deep” stage, and are now in the “coping through humour” stage.

Responding to some commenters making jokes about including unicorns, rainbows and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the game, Blizzard’s Community Manager went and posted these pics.

As a joke, sure. But now that they’re out there? Unicorns and Marshmallow Men in Diablo III would actually be great, thanks.

Community Manager Posts ‘Diablo 3? Screens With Unicorn, Rainbow, Marshmallow Man [MTV]

“With more hall space, more attendees, and more attractions, this BlizzCon will be our biggest yet,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re working hard with our partners to make this an unforgettable experience, and we’re looking forward to meeting players at the show.”

Best of all, Kotaku will be there! Well, I will be there. Most of Kotaku will be in Japan. I suppose I could have gone to Japan too, but then I’d miss out on that sweet polar bear mount. Either way, coverage begins Friday, so stay tuned for more from the BlizzCon floor.

BlizzCon® 2008 Gaming Convention Begins This Week

IRVINE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s two-day gaming festival, BlizzCon® 2008, begins on Friday, October 10, at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, California. The convention celebrates the communities of players surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® game universes. Attendees of the sold-out show will be able to play the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment games as well as speak with developers in special panels, participate in tournaments and contests, and meet with fellow gamers and friends.

Jay Mohr has returned to host the live contests this year, and the show will close on Saturday evening with an epic concert featuring comedian Patton Oswalt, Blizzard’s own Warcraft-themed metal band Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and Video Games Live, who will be performing special orchestral arrangements of music from Blizzard games.

“With more hall space, more attendees, and more attractions, this BlizzCon will be our biggest yet,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re working hard with our partners to make this an unforgettable experience, and we’re looking forward to meeting players at the show.”

For those unable to attend, DIRECTV® will be broadcasting the convention live as a pay-per-view event. Visit www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/dtv for more information. In addition, up-to-date show coverage will be posted at the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com.

Anyone attending BlizzCon who is interested in pursuing career opportunities at Blizzard Entertainment should bring their resumes, demo reels, art portfolios, or business cards, as the global staffing team will be on hand to accept materials and discuss any job-related questions.

BlizzCon would not be possible without the enthusiasm of Blizzard gamers around the world and the generous support of AMD, Dell®, DIRECTV, Intel®, and other sponsors.

Currently the service mainly services Europe, South America, and a few bits of Asia, so those of us in the U.S. will have to make due with obsessively humming the theme song to WoW until allowances are made.

Blizzard Mobile Store [Official Site via WorldofWar.net]

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Blizzard has “a small reserve of tickets left” which will be going up for grabs tonight, August 12 at 8:00 PM PDT. Even with the larger crowd accommodation and the $US 100 ticket prices, expect whatever’s left to sell out at lightning speed.

And expect even more grumbling and griping in the official Blizzard forums when they do.