World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

The big opening ceremony has just completed, and the big announcement that everyone was anticipating was not disappointing. In fact, it wowed the whole audience. Ok, no more suspense...

When Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime brought up the catch-phrase of the pre-event chatter - "the big announcement" - Matt Uelman (or a very convincing look-alike) walked onto stage and strummed the eerie opening cords of... Diablo

That's right: the big announcement was that Blizzard's next game will be a return to their storied horror-action franchise with Diablo 3!

Blizzard led off with one of their trademark CGI trailers and then producer Bill Roper (Game Designer, Warcraft II and co-producer of Diablo II) offered a play-through featuring the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor classes. The barbarian has many new and powerful attacks, but remains unmistakable from the previous games with attacks like Whirlwind. The Witch Doctor is a spell caster that uses both diseases and fire, can summon pets and even a wall of zombies! In many way, this class is similar to a Warlock in the World of Warcraft. The demo also showed how interactive the environment will be in the game, with many objects being able to be used or destroyed for harmful or beneficial effect.

Stay tuned for images for more information and media at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 portal at Ten Ton Hammer!