The Day Twitter Died
Blizzard Announces Diablo 3
After weeks of speculation, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo III at its World Wide Invitational event in Paris.
Said to feature more quests than ever, the anticipated sequel will stick to its roots by being "first and foremost a cooperative game."
Diablo III will feature old standards such as the quotable Deckard Cain, as well as a new version of Tristram and a fresh class dubbed the Witch Doctor. The jungle-born warrior will use ancient tribal magic to cast disease and mind control spells, in addition to utilizing pets such as locust swarms and mongrels.
The game will also include several control improvements, including full zoom capability and a hotbar to easily access skills. Players will be able to quickswap between skills using the mouse wheel or tab key.
Armor will now be class-specific, designed to provide each character a unique look. Classes themselves are more diverse, as it was noted that there will be female versions of both the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.
In a demo of the Barbarian class, the company noted that less of an emphasis will be placed on potions for health. Instead, red orb-like items will drop that immediately recover health once the player picks them up.
Environmental destruction was also shown off, with a character at one point busting through a solid wall. The environment can also be used to kill enemies, as in the case of objects that fell from a wall, killing a group of monsters.
Enemies were shown to be larger in scale than in past games, with giant evil trees and a massive demon called a Siegebreaker.
Blizzard has released a set of official features and a story description, which can now be conveniently viewed below the fold:
Two decades have passed since the demonic denizens, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, wandered the world of Sanctuary in a vicious rampage to shackle humanity into unholy slavery. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils directly, the memory fades slowly and the wounds of the soul still burn.When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram's Cathedral seeking clues to new stirrings of evil, a comet from the heavens strikes the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. The comet carries a dark omen in its fiery being and it calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells--and even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself.
- Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary--the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III rendered in gorgeous 3D.
- Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo's past: such as the fierce Barbarian.
- Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage--all powered by the Havoc physics system.
- Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier--and cooperative gameplay more fun.
Blizzard's Diablo 3 FAQ page is still acting wonky, or if you're too impatient to read through everything here are the highlights:
- Return to Sanctuary, the same world as the previous 2 games. The game takes place 20 years after Diablo 2.
- There are 5 character classes in the game. We know two so far: a new Witch Doctor class, and a completely redone Barbarian class. Male and female options for all classes.
- Havok-powered physics
- Building on previous random environments, Blizzard promises "a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game."
- Upgraded Battle.net
- Deckard Cain returns, but is noted as the "first victim" of the new horrors
- Plan is to release the game "simultaneously in as many regions as possible, and to localize the game in several languages." The game will ship for Mac and Windows simultaneously.
The Conservative Mind
From Daily KOS:
It must be really scary to be a conservative. To be one, you must live in constant fear of terrorists nuking the United States, of gay people on the verge of convincing you that you really enjoy sodomy, of Spanish becoming the official language of the United States next week, of every African-American voting seven or eight times in the next election, of radical Islam suddenly becoming the latest hip thing among kids across the country, of perpetual lesbian orgies in girls bathrooms in high schools across America, of liberals forcing everyone to become a vegan, of Christians being rounded up into concentration camps, and of Democrats outlawing private property if they were to ever take power again.
They do live in a state of fear, and what's more, they want everyone else to join them hiding under their bed, in their pool of urine.
Oh, they'll talk tough. They'll bluster and pound their chests like the neanderthals they are.
But inside, they are scared little children, terrified of the world, of people not like them, of change.
And they can't fathom any other way to live.
Unlike McCain, Obama can use a computer...
...and he uses a Mac!
McCain Breaking the Law in Plain Sight
I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)
I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.
The most generous interpretation of what happened is that McCain's lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming of the system doesn't really count as strict adherence. And the point is irrelevant since the head of the FEC -- a Republican -- says McCain cannot do this on his own.
Like everything that has to do with campaign finance, the details are a little ... well, detailed. But they're worth understanding.
Who are the "Media Bloggers Association" and what gives them to right to negotiate copyright with the Associated Press?
The Associated Press has promised to meet with some organization I've never heard of called "The Media Bloggers Association" to work out the details of its frankly insane proposal to sell licenses to quote five or more words from AP stories.
Who are the Media Bloggers Association? Turns out it's mostly one guy, some right-wing attack-blogger who hangs around on the lecture circuit and ran a blog devoted to pissing on Keith Olbermann. Our Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blogged an extensive analysis of the Media Bloggers Association and its total irrelevance to blogging and its total unsuitability to representing "blogging" in some kind of negotiation with the AP.
The Media Bloggers Association substantially consists of one lackluster blogger named Robert Cox. His weblog, Words in Edgewise, and the MBA website, are two halves of the same site. Robert Cox isn’t all that interested in blogging per se. What he’s really into is self-aggrandizement by representing himself as someone who speaks for bloggers and blogging. An embarrassing number of organizations have fallen for this.
Link
Article by Cory Doctrow of BoingBoing.
Congress To Investigate Iraq Fuel Deal Involving McCain Fundraiser
An NBC News exclusive report that ran on msnbc.com about an unusual Pentagon fuel deal has sparked an inquiry by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to the committee's Web site. As the NBC News report said, the lucrative contract to ship fuel through Jordan to Iraq involved an influential group of people, including Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III, who is now a top fundraiser for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid. It also involved the brother-in-law of the king of Jordan, who is suing Sargeant, alleging fraud. Sargeant is the president of the International Oil Trading Company (IOTC), which won the contract. The Committee Chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent letters requesting information about the deal. One went to Sargeant, the politically active company president. Sargeant, who has raised over $100,000 for McCain, was listed on June 3 as the co-chair of the McCain Victory Committee in Florida. The other letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Both letters cite the msnbc.com report, and request contract information.
As NBC News reported, starting in 2004, after the invasion of Iraq, Sargeant's IOTC repeatedly won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. NBC cited Pentagon officials, saying that even though it was not the lowest bidder it was the only firm that met the necessary conditions. The letter, signed by Waxman, quotes the NBC story: "According to a recent press account regarding International Oil Trading Company (IOTC), 'For each gallon of jet fuel that is delievered to the U.S. military in Iraq, IOTC charges the Pentagon $1.08 over the market price.'" The original NBC report said that "Sargeant's IOTC has experienced phenomenal growth since the Iraq war started, transforming itself from an unknown business in 2004 to a major Pentagon contractor in only a few years."