Musings on the Diablo III town portal after many viewings

By Stephen Munn | August 15, 2008

When I wrote about the big reveal of Diablo III back in June, I was pretty excited. One thing I said at the time was that this is the part where we all watch it over and over again. Naturally, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing: watching the gameplay trailer, which I’ve downloaded at an ungodly resolution of 1280×720 and footprint of 800+ MB. One thing I didn’t notice at first was the town portal, which Deckard Cain retreats through as the barbarian enters a particularly hazardous area. Now, it’s just a town portal, but let’s have a look at it for a second. It really kind of gives the impression of a hole in space, I suppose, moreso than the undulating blue pools of the previous two versions, but this rendition of the portal is a bit of a change. I guess what I’d always expected was a kind of rippling water effect, perhaps even showing part of the destination when you look into it. This is fine, it’s not like I’m complaining about color or anything, I do like it. I’m making more of a deal out of it than some might expect, simply because I’ve spent so much time in Diablo games opening these and stepping through.

Let’s have a look at how they’ve changed over time, shall we?

This is a town portal in Diablo, got it at Blizzard.com

This is a town portal in Diablo II, made it mah-self